Movie Review #12 Chronicle (2012)

- A found footage film where we see it live... not found.

I should explain the subheading first. The entire movie is seen through multiple cameras all of which are cameras being held by people within the movie or security cameras or the like. Almost every camera is fully explained within the confines of the movie so it's like the viewer is in the movie. I vomit in the general direction of that idea. Blair Witch did it fine insomuch as it was the first time that kind of thing was done and was financially successful. Since then all attempts at the genre of “found footage” has basically killed my will to live. I didn't know this would be a shaky camera experience prior to movie start, had I, I might not have sat down to watch it. I lie, I was always going to give it a whirl. I give things too many chances to impress me and this was no different. I mean, Max Landis of the YouTube hit “The Death and Return of Superman” wrote it. While I didn't really get a kick out of that video because I knew most of the information, it was probably the most concise and humorous video explaining what in the world happened during that Superman arc. For that I must give him more writing credit than most of the writers of big comic publishers.

Movie Review #11 Shame (2011)

- diving into sexual deviancy head first.

Shame is rated 'NC-17' in the United States and 'R' in Canada, but I'll be trying to make this review PG to fit in with my prior reviews (due to my desire to eventually put terrible ads in here and they tend not to like adult content). Shame, just like Young Adult, is a movie that I heard mumblings about prior to the Oscars and then even more so when it got snubbed at the nominations. Unlike Young Adult, however, after watching Shame, I know for sure that it should have received at least one nomination (best male lead), especially since that category was really lacking in quality dark performances.

Shame quickly lays down the dark and offensive (although not to this reviewer) lifestyle of the character Brandon Sullivan (as played by Michael Fassbender). Within the first five minutes you see two sexual encounters (different women each time), multiple sights of full-frontal male nudity and a back-on scene of Fassbender urinating. If the first five minutes don't bother you, the movie itself will likely not offend you, although maybe the insinuated sexual act between two males might, but then if this actually bothers you, stop reading this review, stop reading my blog and go about your business. The point of the movie isn't to offend, it's to show the struggling life of Brandon, who the viewer is to assume, has a sexual deviancy problem. I am saying it is a problem, based solely on the fact that it is getting in the way of his work while ultimately causing harm to others and himself through emotional and physical means.

Movie Review #10 Mother's Day (2010)

- remake of a Troma movie, what could go wrong?

I don't usually check out a lot of horror flicks that dive deep into torture or gore for the sake of it but given that it was just Mother's Day, I figured the title was fitting and I'd give it a whirl. The original movie “Mother's Day” is a Troma Entertainment movie made some 30 years ago by the main driving power, Lloyd Kaufman. Troma films are known for roughly only two things, the worst acting you've ever seen and far beyond the tolerable in amounts of disgusting imagery. They are single -handedly the reason movies like the Saw franchise were made, the only difference being that the Saw franchise has financial backing into its creation, promotion and distribution. This review is not going to do a comparison of the old and new version. I haven't seen the original (though I've heard they are really quite different) and as I'm sure you have gathered I have no real desire to do so. I'll be sticking strictly to the new one.

Movie Review #9 Young Adult (2011)

- A character study of the high school prom queen 18 years after the fact.

There are always a few films that get mentioned around the Oscar Awards ceremony that got snubbed and they “totally deserved” a nomination/award. I heard about a few of these such films this year, one of them being 'Young Adult'. Come Oscar nomination time, I compose a list of all the movies nominated and check off the ones I've seen, the ones I need to see before Oscar night and I take note of the movies that nominations got lost in the mail. To jump ahead in the review, I guess I can see why people wanted the movie to get recognition, I just don't know what Oscar it should have been up for. Best supporting actor maybe?

The movie is really just awkward and painful to watch, not in that it's a bad movie but in that the characters Mavis (Charlize Theron) and Matt (Patton Oswalt) are so jaded and broken as characters you feel terrible that these kinds of people exist and flow through the world that seems so different from ours. The characters are brutally honest and filled with hate living outside the realm of reality.

Game Review #2 Skullgirls (2012)

- When the horror-obsessed and the sexually deprived meet in the ring

A newcomer to the video game business, Reverge Labs comes right at you by partnering with publishers Autumn Games/Konami to bring fighting fans another game that just might be able to keep up with the big boys, or at the very least keep the sexually frustrated up. Released for PS3 (via the PSN) and the Xbox 360 (via XBLA) on April 10^th and11^th respectively, fighting fans are in for some eye candy and some disturbing imagery to say the least.

I've never wanted to go through a cast of fighters in detail so much as this one, due to the fact that half the cast is arguably rather sexy fighters and the other half are morbidly disgusting. Double is skinless, and her parts are all in the wrong location and I'm not sure she has a face. While the sexy ones are a bit weird too, you could easily reason with yourself that they are attractive. It's not like demon hair, or a hat that can talk and has arms is a total deal-breaker, right? Okay, maybe I'm alone on that one. Still, the cast probably has something for everyone assuming you're more on the quirky, dark side of life than the rainbows and unicorn side. They are all well animated and have top-notch sprites. Not quite BlazBlue or Guilty Gear quality sprites but certainly noteworthy.