Sniper Ghost Warrior (PS3 game review)

Sniper Ghost Warrior

I love sniping. Any game that gives you the option to use a sniper rifle or a slew of other weapons, I always choose the sniper rifle. I tend to find conventional weapons boring, AK47? What else is there? I prefer the strange, one shot one kill type weapons in games, revolvers, shotguns, crossbows, and of course sniper rifles.

So the idea of a game where you’re always using a sniper rifle sounds awesome to the niche demographic that I’m a part of. Hearing of this game got me pretty excited to play it, even though I just got around to it now (There’s already a sequel out).

The setting for this game is the jungle. There are villages, rivers, and temples, but mostly just dense jungle terrain. This isn’t really a problem because the game gives you enough variety in the environment to keep you from growing bored. The environments are well constructed. The areas are aimed towards realism, which when combined with the slow stalking combat and sniper theme, bring the Tom Berenger film “The Sniper” to mind.

The jungle environment made me think of the jungle sections from Metal Gear Solid 3. This might sound weird, but the main reason I’m reminded of it, is the ambient bird sounds. Kind of random, but these two games have really well done ambient bird sounds. A strange compliment to give a game I know, but the sound designers deserve a nod for that. It probably helps that I have a nest of birds right outside my window though. The ambient sound design really added to the environment and made the game more engrossing for it, especially in tense situations.

Most of the other sound is done well. All the guns sound good. Each sniper rifle has its own distinct sound and the silenced pistol, whilst sounding incredibly cheesy, sounds awesome.

The big complaint on the sound department isn’t actually on the effects, it’s on the voice acting. It’s terrible. All of it. Every single voice actor in the game is awful. Some are worse than others, but none of them are good. It doesn’t help that the game has horrible writing, but I’ll come back to that in a moment. The delivery, especially from the main character is bad and comes off as awkward. I feel some of the blame belongs to whoever was directing the voice actors. Sometimes they exaggerate the lines to the point of being hilarious.

The people you are shooting at, are speaking a foreign language, and because of that fact, the game developers thought they could half *ss the enemy dialogue and nobody would care. True I don’t speak the language, but did you honestly think I wouldn’t notice that 87% of all the enemy dialogue is the exact same line of dialogue, read by the same single voice actor? Really? You couldn’t spend a little more time on the voice acting?

Another strange thing I noticed regarding this single line of dialogue is that if you kill the character saying at the wrong moment, he will finish the line from beyond the grave. Thies wasn’t a one time thing, it happened repeatedly throughout the game. The first time it happened I was confused, I thought maybe there was another enemy talking or something. After further investigation I discovered that it was in fact a dead person speaking.

The writing is terrible. It’s almost ridiculous how cliché it is. It’s like they didn’t even try to come up with an original story. All of the characters in the game, lack the most crucial part, “Character”. They have no personalities outside of plot convenience. At one point you get double crossed by a teammate and it has absolutely no impact because his character wasn’t established beforehand. Yeah he’s there in the beginning of the game, but he doesn’t develop. There are no interactions between him and the main character so the double cross loses its effectiveness.

The main character is completely flat. He has no real personality, he just does what people tell him. Oh well, at least he has a voice, I hate when they make you silent in games. The main villain, (if you can even call him that, they do nothing to set him apart from the other nameless goons you whack on your way towards him) has no build up. I didn’t even remember his name, he doesn’t even have any dialogue, or a distinct look. He doesn’t really do anything either, he just stands around when it’s time to shoot him. You shoot at this guy twice throughout the game. Once in the very beginning and once at the end. The first time you shoot at him, he get’s away. I got really confused at this point. I shot him in the chest and saw him hit the floor, yet the characters in the game say that the shot missed and that he got away. Was I not supposed to hit him or something? He is the target for the game, which is really just one hit that get’s sidetracked a lot.

The story is full of cliché moments they even have a slow motion walk towards the camera that came out of left field. It’s your character holding his gun in the air and 3 obscure teammates, one of which is holding his gun over his shoulders. Anyway they all swag walk towards the camera, which was hilarious and completely out of character for the game. I guess it was supposed to be cool, but really, it was just surprising. Especially since you were nowhere near these other people before the swag walking started.

The A.I. is completely dreadful. Sometimes they notice you for no reason, and other times they stand there looking stupid. Something I don’t get is the accuracy of the enemies. You play as a sniper, a highly trained agent, with high tech weapons, yet your enemies have perfect aim from any distance with a regular old rifle. That’s kind of stupid if you ask me.

The gameplay is the strong point of the game. They clearly put a lot of effort into making the sniping feel “right”. It’s a more complex system than most games have. Bullet drop, wind, rain, all affect your bullet trajectory.

Sniping is a lot of fun and there is a cool slow motion effect that sometimes triggers when you score a headshot or a double kill with one bullet. The enemy ragdolls and goes flying. It’s fun. You have the option to take an assault rifle from a dead enemy, but I never did, I can’t see why you’d want to. You also get throwing knives, but they aren’t as cool or useful as you’d expect. The back of the game case proclaims that you can use C4 and Claymore mines in the game. I counted the number of times you can use these things. # of times you can use Claymore mines: 1. Yes only once, yet it earned a bullet point on the back of the box. # of times you can use C4: 1. Seriously just once again, they were really stretching for things to put on the back of the case.

There are a couple of segments where you have to use a station machine gun, first let me just say that the sound effect for this gun scared the hell out of me. It’s about 10x as loud as everything else and it very much surprised me. These segments were terribly boring and added nothing to the gameplay. They were most likely added for some variety, but whenever one came up, I just wanted to get back to the sniping.

Moving around is really awkward in this game. You can frequently get stuck on rocks and inclines in the terrain that seem as though you should easily be able to just walk over. The moving becomes further impaired when you crouch or crawl. In that state you can hardly even move side to side, and going up stairs? Forget about it, you’ll just glitch back and forth until you give up and just stand up.

The other big component to the game is stealth. I’m a big fan of stealth games and this game did a different but good job at it. The stealth is not shadow based like splinter cell, or cover based like a game such as Deus Ex, it’s closest to Metal Gear solid again with its camouflage system, and while you never change camouflage in Sniper Ghost Warrior, you can use it to blend into the vegetation spread across the jungle. In the stealth sections, you usually have the option to sneak through or you just kill everyone and stride through like a magnificent BAMF, but don’t go striding off just yet, you can slowly plot your way around, under, or through your enemies like a stealthy and even more magnificent BAMF. The stealth works fairly well, except when the AI decides to just randomly start shooting. You can even use stealth in place of most of the killing sections. Sniper Ghost Warrior teaches you to take the long way around, and too often times disobey the instructions you are given. I don’t think this was intentional, but it is often more rewarding to avoid the preset path and the onscreen prompts and instead take the long way around. The stealth segments can be fun and intense and again reminded me of the movie “Sniper” which I’m guessing was inspiration for this game. Most of the music is just your generic Call of Duty esque military music, but some of the music in the stealth segments is perfectly fitting. It’s intense pulsating score fits perfectly in a stealth environment and sounds like a beating heart. I dig it.

The ending of the game left me in awe., but not because it was good, let me explain. The game goes “Kill this dude” and I was all like “Aight”, so I kill him and the game cuts to black with the text “The End”. then the credits roll with a completely unfitting reggae swing song. I kind of liked the song, but it went against the whole style of the game up until that point. I couldn’t believe how completely anti-climactic the ending was, no build up, no final challenge, the last enemy you kill before this is completely set up, he just stand there facing the wrong way while put a bullet or a knife in the back of his head then it’s just you and the big baddie. It’s not even a difficult shot, yeah it’s far away but I got it on the first try and I figure most people would do so as well, and there’s not even an ending cutscene, no closure, just BOOM the end.

The ending left a bitter taste in my mouth and it was only further soured when I checked my completion to find it at only 4 hours. That is very short. That’s only about half as long as a game needs to be in order to be worth the price in my opinion.

There is multiplayer, but it just feels tacked on and is not very well executed. I feel like this is some serious missed opportunity. I was hoping for some intense person VS person sniper battles like I got in the Farcry 2 multiplayer, but sadly this game did not deliver.

Sniper Ghost Warrior has a great number of problems, but it is still a lot of fun, the stealth and sniper segments can be intense and engrossing, but the rest of the game is so poorly constructed. It’s like having an awesome cake but it’s inside a box that someone dropped in the mud and pissed on. You don’t want to open it do you? It’s just not quite worth it.

Sniper Ghost Warrior is not worth buying at its current price of $19.99. If the price drops to under 10, then I’d say maybe, but only if you’re seriously into sniping and stealth. Right now I’d say just rent it or skip it altogether.

 

A Lapse in Sanity

“A Lapse in Sanity” short horror film by Sam Kench

I have recently completed my latest short film, titled “A Lapse in Sanity”, A 25 minute horror short starring Shaun Hathaway and Cathy Nolan Vincevic.

The short focuses on the idea of something Mrs. Crowley says “When you blink your mind shuts off. For that fraction of a second, your brain is off, and your mind is left wide open.”

The short is an allegory for what happens to the mind when you are not in control of it. What can “enter your mind” if you will.

“A Lapse in Sanity” is a surreal journey following the main character’s descent into madness. Full of stark and jarring images. It aims to get inside your mind, and unnerve you.

Now available on DVD.

Donnie Yen Double Feature (Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen/Flashpoint)

Donnie Yen is a well accomplished Hong Kong action star. He has made many acclaimed action films such as Ip Man and Hero. He’s among the ranks of Jackie Chan and Jet Li yet I had never before seen a full Donnie Yen film. I’ve made it my mission to see a handful of Donnie Yen films. I had already seen most of Ip Man before so I decided to start with Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen and then go on to watch Flash Point.

First off is my review of Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen. The title seems very cliche and uninspired. “Legend of the Fist” Very bland and it doesn’t do a whole lot to separate itself from other action movies. However the 2nd half of the title is a bit more interesting. “The Return of Chen Zhen” Chen Zhen is a character that has been in many martial arts movies being played by a number of accomplished martial artists including Jet Li and was first played by Bruce Lee in the Chinese Connection. So Chen Zhen is definitely a character worth noting. The “Legend of the Fist” bit is making more sense now isn’t it? The character has always been associated with a fist, as a trademark.

Donnie Yen has many connections to Bruce Lee. He cites Bruce Lee as an influence, he played Bruce Lee’s teacher in Ip Man, and he has reprized multiple roles previously played by Bruce Lee. He has played Chen Zhen in Legend of the fist as well as the TV series Fist of Fury. Bruce Lee made a movie known in America as Fists of Fury, but the original title was Big Boss. Donnie Yen made a movie called Snow Wolf, but the original title was The New Big Boss.

All these connections make Donnie Yen the obvious choice for the role of Chen Zhen. He even throws in some iconic Bruce Lee high pitched yelling into his fighting. It’s definitely toned down, but it’s still there.

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen opens with one of the coolest action sequences I’ve seen in a long time. The beginning of the movie has Donnie Yen killing Germans in WWI. They have lots of men and lots of guns. He is just one man, with 3 knives. He sprints and parkours through gun fire and slashes them to pieces in an action sequence that will have you verbally exclaiming.

Now after that incredible opening action sequence, the rest of the film is a bit of a disappointment. It’s definitely not bad, just slower. There are other action scenes, and while they do not surpass the opening fight, they are all still awesome. the only problem is that the connecting bits between action sequences is not incredibly interesting. The film has a decent plot, but it feels the need to reiterate everything that is going on in between each scene.

It’s a shame that the movie peaks with it’s opening scene, as the rest of the movie seems even more slow and monotonous in comparison. The other fights are all superbly choreographed and executed. The action is fast and brutal. This is the kind of movie where you wish they swapped a couple of expositional scenes with a few more action sequences.

The final fight at the end of the movie is a little mixed. It begins as Donnie Yen fighting a large group of Japanese soldiers and then boils down to a one on one fight between him and the final villain. The group fight is awesome. Donnie Yen showcases incredible speed and kicks an average of 3.5 people in the face each time he leaves the ground, which is quite often. Unfortunately the one on one fight is a little disappointing. The fight isn’t bad by any means, but it lacks a certain flair, and ends up lowering the final fight.

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen has good action, but terrible pacing. I would almost say that this is the kind of film where you should skip to the good parts. If you watch Legend of the Fist you’ll probably have a good time, but you may be a little bored at parts.

Flash Point (Not to be confused with the sub par TV show of the same name.)

Flash Point is not strictly a martial arts movie. It also has it’s fair share of gunplay. At times Flash Point can seem like a John Woo movie, which is a good thing. I got a real Hard Boiled kind of vibe off of Flash Point. There are a number of small similarities between the two films. I wonder if it was an inspiration.

Flash Point, much like Legend of the Fist, opens with a an action scene. In Flash Point the action is very short. It’s only about a minute and a half long, but it sets the tone and style of the movie. It is shot in one continuous dolly shot and looks great.

The next big chunk of the movie sets up the story. The story is actually rather cliche. There’s an undercover cop, a girlfriend in danger, a loose cannon cop who takes the law into his own hands, a bad guy above the law. It’s all been done before. The only slightly different thing is that instead of following the undercover cop whose girlfriend gets kidnapped, we follow his partner played by Donnie Yen. Not many movies do that, most films have you follow the center of the conflict. I think it was a smart move.

Flash Point has an interesting set of characters. The character development is done well and each character has a unique personality, which is something that a lot of action films don’t bother with. At times we follow both the good guys and the bad guys. Wison Yip the director does a very good job with the film. He brings a definite style and tone to the film that doesn’t take itself too seriously. There is a good lighthearted tone that welcomes comedy into the action.

Most of the acting is good, with one really terrible performance that sticks out. There is a woman who plays a cop in an action scene. She has not been in the movie before now, so this is our introduction to her. People start shooting. She’s in cover with another cop. She’s supposed to be either terrified or caught up in the action, but instead she’s smiling away. She is obliviously happy while being shot at, and the movie tries to bring tension when she dies. She get’s killed and it’s supposed to be dramatic and rage fueling, when really, it was her own fault she died, and the audience doesn’t even know her before it happens. I don’t even think she has a name. Just one poorly acted scene. You can’t introduce someone in the same scene you kill them off and expect there to be a dramatic payoff.

The relationship between the undercover cop and his girlfriend is a big part of the movie. The entire final fight scene happens because of them. The problem is that I don’t really buy their relationship. Maybe it’s the writing or maybe they just have poor onscreen chemistry, but I didn’t feel the passion that was supposed to have fueled this suicidal charge at the end.

The action in this film is great. Donnie Yen is also the action director and he brings incredible action sequences to Flash Point. There are some great chase and fight sequences. Two in particular stand out. The first is a parkour chase through the city that leads to a one on one fight in a market. Both aspects of this scene are awesome and well performed by both men.

The final sequence of the film makes the movie. The best scene in the movie is the two part action scene at the end. Where Legend of the Fist opened strong, Flash Point closed strong. A movie needs to open strong and end even stronger. I think Flash Point succeeded more in this aspect.

The film ends with a two part action sequence. The first part is a John Woo-esque shootout between Donnie Yen and all the bad guys. The shootout is very well done and this is where I  started to notice the very well done camera angles and pans. The camera work may not be important to the casual film viewer, but it does play an important role in the effectiveness of any movie. The shootout showcases some awesome sniper rifle work which again makes me wish that there were more sniper gunfights in movies. True we do have some films about snipers like Shooter or Sniper, but there is always room for more. One of the main villains dies in one of the coolest on screen deaths from any film during this shootout.

Start spoiler * He is blasted into the air and skeet shot several times with the sniper rifle as he falls down onto the roof of a car. Awesome. * End spoiler

After the gunfight it’s down to Donnie Yen and one of the main villains. No guns now just fighting. This fight is incredible. It’s long varied and brutal. The actors take some impressive falls and daring full contact hits. This fight is the highlight of the whole film. I would say that most of the film is not quite there but this final fight makes the movie worth watching.

In closing I would say that neither of these movies are bad at all, but they’re not that great either. They both have great moments, but fail to deliver a consistently great experience throughout. Both films tend to drag, but the action is showstopping. I enjoyed Flash Point more than Legend of the Fist. If you’re going to watch one, then I would say, go with that one.

Related articles

• Ip Man (2008): Donnie Yen’s Masterful Performance (mikesfilmtalk.com)
• DRAGON review “The zenith of Donnie Yen’s career as a performer and martial artist” (noframeof.com)
• Donnie Yen and his spouse Wang Shishi married 10 some time having said that loved-up. (1weddingdresses1.wordpress.com)
• Exclusive: Martial Artist Donnie Yen Can’t Be Stopped In This ‘Dragon’ Clip (geek-news.mtv.com)

 

Evil Dead (2013)

This review is something a little different. For the remake of the Evil Dead (Which is one of my favorite films of all time) I bring a video review. This is the return to a review series I did a while ago called “The Good, The Bad, and The Grindhouse” There’s 2 of us who review good, bad, and enjoyably bad movies, whilst getting off topic and discussing other movies.

More video reviews will be coming hopefully, but the written reviews won’t be stopping. If you want to see more video reviews, you can subscribe to the youtube channel to be notified of future videos.

Man Bites Dog (1992)

Spoiler Free

Man Bites Dog is a film that I had been trying to find for a while. A DVD eluded my grasp but I was pleasantly surprised to find the film available on youtube. You can watch it there if a DVD is not available.

I really like the title. “Man Bites Dog” It’s obscure and peaks the interest of any potential viewers, and it has great relevance to the film, in a metaphorical way.

Man Bites Dog is a Belgian film. The full original title is C’est arrivé près de chez vous which means “It happened in your neighborhood.” The film wants to convey a strong sense of reality immediately.

Man Bites Dog is a found footage film. I am not a big fan of the genre. I would almost say I hate the whole genre but there are of course exceptions. Most found footage films are terrible. Paranormal Activity is dreadful and there are more awful exorcism films than I care to list. There are a few good found footage films like the newish horror film V/H/S which I plan to review eventually. Is Man Bites Dog one of the few good found footage films?

The footage that has been found is a documentary that was being made by a crew of independent filmmakers focusing on the day to day activities of a serial killer. I find this concept to be fascinating. It’s such an interesting idea and could easily make for a great film. The found footage effect is completely necessary in this film. Found footage is much more understandable when it has a purpose to the plot. Here’s an example, Man Bites Dog needed the found footage effect as part of the story. End of Watch (While being a good film) did not need to have the found footage effect. Change a couple lines of dialogue and it would have been just as effective.

Man Bites Dog is known as a dark comedy. The comedic element of the film is actually a major selling point, even the tagline promotes this ideal saying “A killer comedy”. I did not think of Man Bites Dog as a comedy. I feel that this could be misleading to some viewers. There are some funny moments, but it’s not a comedy in the traditional sense. It’s the absurdity of the situation and the reactions of the characters that bring the comedy. Calling Man Bites Dog a comedy is like calling Terminator a love story. Yeah there are some underlying themes and few key moments that represent the genre, but it’s not the center point, nor is it focused on a great deal.

Man Bites Dog is a hard film to classify. It’s very strange, which is a big reason of why it’s so effective. When picking a genre, I would say it’s close to horror. Not in the traditional sense of course. Man Bites Dog is horror in the sense that Red State is horror. The events that take place are heavily based in reality and could actually happen. The actions of the characters are truly “Horrifying” from a realistic stand point. The fact that these things could very easily actually happen makes the situation frightening.

The main character is serial killer named Benoit he is played by a man who is also named Benoit. In fact, most of the cast uses their real names. They’re even playing themselves in way. In the film is a camera crew and director, playing the camera crew and director is, the camera crew and director. It’s strange to think that this guy is playing himself, who is killing people.

Benoit is a very interesting character. He’s not a mindless killer like Jason, and he’s not a high class intellectual like Hannibal Lecter. He’s closer to a normal guy. I think this makes the situation all the more tense. Here is a guy who can blend perfectly into society committing heinous acts. In fact there are scenes with Benoit’s parents who are his real parents. They thought that it was an actual documentary on their son, they didn’t know that their son was portraying a serial killer.

Benoit is an uncompromising killer who kills mainly just for entertainment. He does steal from the people he kills, but the money is not what he’s after. Benoit has a poetic nature about him. He even gives a full poem about pigeons. He makes stark commentaries on life while taking it away from others. He satires what is acceptable in society while breaking preset taboo’s.

Benoit is the focus of the film. He spends most f the run time talking to the camera, but there are other characters. The film crew which consists of three people at any given time. They are poorly developed aside from Remy the director. He is a well constructed character and you follow his progression throughout the film. The other film crew members are completely flat. The things that happen to them have very little impact due to their lack of build up. Most of the other characters in the film are simply people who get killed, there are some side characters but no one that stands out.

Man Bites Dog is truly shocking. The film sets out to surprise the audience and it succeeds in doing so. The film is very jarring in an intentional effective way. The black and white film and the handheld found footage really add to the effectiveness of the crimes that are committed. This is one film where the found footage effect enhances the film.

Right from the opening shot of the film, the tone is set. A shocking display of violence taking place in a public crowded area. That set’s most of the film up from there, aside from the social commentary. The film is incredibly realistic which is what makes it effective. The murder is not glorified, it’s realistic. The setting of the film enhances the effect as well. Crowded areas and abandoned areas alike. The filmmakers did not build sets for the film, they went out and found places where they could kill people, and places where they could dispose of the bodies. The areas are real locations in the city where the film was shot, true geurilla film making. the low budget and geurilla style of the film just enhance the experience.

Man Bites Dog is a truly unique experience. It’s unlike any film I’ve seen before. The film does drag a bit towards the end. It feels as though the film would have been just shy of a feature so they added a few scenes as fluff. The scenes aren’t completely bad, but they do feel out of and unnecessary. Almost out of character. The film almost feels as though it has two endings. The movie hits a spot where it could end, then continues a little further only to end right after that.

Man Bites Dog is an incredible experimental experience and should get more recognition for it’s ingenuity. The filmmakers never went on to do any other films. the main actor has gone on to be in other films, but the directors mainly Remy Belvaux the main director ended after one film. It’s a strange case where a director or writer do only one film. He did commercials after but no features or even short films. Perhaps it’s a case of a man feeling the need to tell just this one story. Maybe he thought he had completed his masterpiece and wanted to go out on top. Maybe he just couldn’t think of anything else, I don’t know, I’d like to, but I don’t.

There is a very strange case that I just found out about. There is a sequel. Yeah, it’s just called “Man Bites Dog: The sequel” But it came out in 2012 a full 20 years after the original, and it doesn’t feature any of the same cast members. The same character of Benoit but a different actor. Now normally I would just assume that this was a fan film. It takes place in New York this time, so I would figure that someone saw the original and really liked and decided to make a fan tribute sequel where they lived. The really weird thing is that one of the writers of the film is named Remy Belvaux which is the name of one of the writer, director, and actors of the original film. That is really weird. Did this guy change his name or did he just happen to have the same name as the guy who wrote the original movie? That would be very weird. It’s even weirder considering the real Remy Belvaux committed suicide. It’s a very strange case. I would like to know more information on this.

Man Bites Dog is definitely worth watching. It’s not for the casual viewer and it may require you to be in a specific morbid mood, but the film is one of the best found footage films I’ve seen to date, and is an incredibly interesting profile of a serial killer, done with a low budget which only enhances the effect. Controversial and morbid, but a well done cinematic experience.

ATM (2012)

Post 100

*Spoiler alert*

I have stated before that I really like horror films. I even tend to like very sub par horror films. I used to go out of way to see bad horror movies. I stopped doing this for a while, because, frankly, I just didn’t have the time to watch bad movies, but I went out of my way to watch this film. I knew that it would probably be terrible, but it was a B-horror movie that starred Josh Peck of Drake and Josh fame. I had to see it.

Let me start off with the acting. There are 3 main actors and then the killer. There are two guys and a girl. The girl is Alice Eve and she is… just awful. I mean really bad, and it doesn’t help that her character is poorly written. The guy who isn’t Josh is Brian Geraghty. He’s… passable I guess, most of the time, but in certain moments he shows a severe lack of talent. Overacting to the point of unintentional comedy.

Josh Peck is the best actor in the film. I actually think he’s a really good actor, and I would like to see him getting better roles in the future. He’s very underrated. He makes the most of his lines, but he can’t salvage the terrible writing. The killer doesn’t really require much acting. He doesn’t say anything and they keep his face hidden for the entire movie (except for one shot in the beginning of the film where you can clearly see his face, but the movie pretends that didn’t happen.) So really he could’ve been played by anyone.

Okay, time for the story. It’s exceedingly weak. The writing is just dreadful. This movie is honestly just really stupid. I’m  going to be saying that word a lot. That’s the best word to describe it. As the movie goes on, there are more and more just plain stupid moments, that I will talk about later on. The characters are somewhat developed, but only through heavy fisted exposition. The plot can be summed up as such: 3 coworkers go to an ATM where an extremely convoluted killer lies in wait. That’s basically it.

The problem could be remedied at any moment through a number of means, but it never happens. There is no tension in the film, because there is no real danger. The characters are too stupid to realize that they could very easily get away. In fact they do. Multiple times. One of the characters even gets into a working car and instead of driving away, sits in the passenger seat for 30 seconds, then gets out of the car and runs back to the Goddamn ATM. There are plenty of opportunities where the killer is behind the ATM and it’s a straight shot to the car and there is no reason why they don’t just run. The killer does not have super speed. The killer can not see through the ATM. They could just quietly walk out of the ATM and the problem would be solved.

The killer is remarkably nonthreatening. He’s just a regular guy. He doesn’t even have a weapon. He just stands there staring at them, and they get scared for some reason. When they first see the guy, he’s just some dude walking to an ATM, and they’re already scared. One of the characters says “Something’s wrong with this guy, why would he be at an ATM at midnight” Seriously? YOU are at an ATM at midnight. Why would you assume he’s a killer?

Multiple times in the movie Josh’s character says “He’s just some guy, there’s three of us and only one of him. Why don’t we just rush him?” Yes. Why not? There is no reason. The guy is not a super hero they could very easily deal with him, and they don’t.

The killer doesn’t actually do anything to them. He just looks at them from far away and occasionally knocks on the back of the ATM. For some reason this scares the crap out of the people in the ATM. There is another line in the film which once again points out a plothole , so obviously the writers knew it was there and chose to ignore it. “He isn’t coming near us, why don’t we just stay here until morning?” Seems like a reasonable solution. Not as reasonable as just walking away, but still, it would work I suppose. Well the movie does actually try to answer this, but they do a terrible job. Their answer to the question is “Because we’ll freeze.” Really? You’re not in the antarctic, you’re in an ATM, you have suitable clothing. They wouldn’t freeze to death by spending the night in an ATM, that’s just stupid.

The plot is very shallow, and seems better suited to a short film. There are several short films called ATM but they have no relation. The plot is just a mess and is filled with stupid and pointless moments.

The killer has no known motivation which is fine, but he doesn’t have much of a plan either. The ending of the film has a “Plot twist” which is hard to do when there isn’t much plot for twisting. It ends by showing that the killer has all the ATMs in the city mapped out. He even has the range of the security cameras marked out, which explains why he doesn’t get too close to the door.

Now, the problem with all of this is that the killer’s convoluted plan consists of a group of idiots showing up at an ATM at midnight, parking ludicrously far away, none of them have a working cellphone, and none of them have enough common sense to do anything productive. Also keep in mind the fact that the killer did not lure these specific people here. They just happened to wander by.

Is there at least any good gore? It is a horror film after all. Well the answer is a resounding no. Only a few people die, and there’s nothing new added to the formula. It’s just the same old slasher game plan. They even try to add drama through the deaths of certain characters. The film completely fails on this count. It tries to invoke the emotion of sadness, while actually invoking laughter.

What can I say that’s good about the film? The cinematography’s not bad. Yeah, it goes overboard on the shaky-cam sometimes, but there are some nicely framed shots. That’s honestly about it though. The film’s well compiled I suppose. Conversations flow well and all, but that’s something that every film should have and for the most part does. I can’t think of anything else that was of high quality in the film.

There are copious amounts of plot holes, and inaccuracies in the film. ATM takes an odd approach to solving this problem. Instead of remedying the screenplay and fixing the errors, they elected to give that task to one of the characters within the film. Josh’s character constantly points out plot holes, and then the film just moves on, without giving an explanation to the contrary. I guess they figured that by having a character point out plot holes that the plot holes ceased to exist. That’s really screwed up logic

Near the end of the film the extremely forced female character dies. This is supposed to be the most dramatic part of the film and it completely failed on all counts. The characters on screen are crying in anguish as the audience is laughing at the stupidity of the moment. I’ll explain what happens but it needs a little lead up.

The killer starts pumping water into the ATM, to freeze them I guess as convoluted as that sounds, and for some reason the people in the ATM think that the only solution  to water being pumped into the ATM is to trigger the sprinklers and have even more water be pumped into the ATM. The fire alarm would trigger the police, but they didn’t just realize that, they figured it out much earlier on in the film.

While they try to trigger the fire alarm the girl gets on the guy’s shoulders and they stand up on a counter and then hilarity ensues. The guy slips off the counter and bashes the girl’s head off the counter. It should have been set to cartoon sound effects.

At one point Josh tries to run out of the ATM. He is clothes lined by an invisible tripwire. Yes the movie is that stupid. At some point the killer set of a trip wire in the middle of the parking lot, yet he and the other characters have walked through the same spot without interacting with it some how. Josh lies there on the ground like an idiot and waits for the killer to come over and stab him to death. Or at least you’re meant to think that for a while. Later on in the film he arrives back at the ATM. Yes, he comes back to the ATM again. He crawled through the parking lot just to get back to the ATM. Why? Why? Did he just feel like dying in the ATM instead of in the parking lot? And if he felt like crawling, why would he crawl back to the ATM? Why not to the car? Or just away from the ATM?

There is another “Plot twist” that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The film ends with the police thinking that the one surviving guy from the ATM killed the others, which doesn’t make any sense. The police come to this conclusion from the fact that he’s the only one alive, and from the footage from the ATM camera. I’ll start by addressing the first reason. I don’t see why they would come to the conclusion that he’s the killer and not another victim. They shouldn’t just assume that. They have no real reason to think he’s the killer other than the fact that he’s the only one alive. I wouldn’t consider that probable cause. The other bit of supposedly incriminating evidence is the security camera footage. At the end of the film they show some clips of the footage that’s all cut out of order and makes it look like the survivor is the killer. This makes absolutely no sense when you think about it. First off, security camera do not just record little incriminating snippets of footage, they record everything, so the police would see everything. They would see all the times that the people work together, they would see someone else crash a car through the side of the ATM, so it obviously couldn’t be him, they would see that it was clearly an accident that the girl died, they would see that all the people in the booth are clearly afraid of something else outside of the booth, not the guy in the booth, there’s such a ludicrous amount of plot holes that it’s really hard to keep track of all of them.

This film is absolutely dreadful. It does have many moments of unintentional hilarity, so I would almost says it’s worth watching because it’s hilariously bad, but it’s not worth enduring. Don’t watch ATM unless you want cheap and dirty laughs at the expense of a bad film.

Jesus was the original zombie

Easter is the day when we celebrate Jesus Christ rising from the dead. So what better way to spend the day than having a tasty brunch followed by a Zombie movie marathon?

Our Easter Sunday Zombie Movie Marathon included:28 Days Later - The first zombie movie with fast zombies. As if zombies weren’t scary enough already.

Now I’m really wanting to watch 28 Weeks Later again. The opening scene of both movies really sets the tone. Memorable and mind blowing.

***

The cult classic Army of Darkness

Sam loves these Evil Dead movies. Me, I can only take so much hokiness, but damn Bruce Campbell is a piece of boomstick carrying hotness in this film.

***

The Cutest Zombie movie you will most likely ever see is Fido 

I put off watching this on Netflix for the longest time because the write up was horrible and the pic of Fido gave me the creeps. But, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and really did say out loud to Sam “That’s the cutest little zombie movie I ever did see”. Yes, the response to my comment was a face palm and grown.

***

Rounding out the marathon is my favorite zombie movie of all time Shaun of the Dead!!!

I can not express enough how much I love the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost marriage of comedy genius.

Repo Men (2010)

*SPOILER FREE*

“Repo Men” is another film that came on that 4 dvd pack with 12 Monkeys and Children of Men.

I didn’t know what to expect from this film. I had no idea what it was about and usually on the 4 DVD packs there is at least one bad movie.

“Repo Men” not to be confused with “Repo Man”, or “Repo Chick”, or “Repo! The Genetic Opera”, or just plain “Repo”

Repo Men is really awesome. I was very surprised by how good it was. The movie has a great tone that jumps between serious and fun. The direction and writing are both very good and the cast is excellent. I’ve never really been a fan of Forest Whitaker, but I really liked him in this film. He brings a great performance to an interesting character. Jude law gives a great performance that really shines in a few key scenes. Jude and Forest have great on screen chemistry and the relationship between their characters is very well constructed. There are some odd supporting cast members. Only odd because they are small roles of actors that I’ve only really seen in one or two other things. Like “Cholo” from “Land of the Dead” who was uncredited in “Repo Men”, and the boss at the movie theater from Drake and Josh there’s even a cameo from RZA.

The film is directed by Miguel Sapochnik, who besides Repo Men has only directed TV shows. Usually just one episode on a few different shows, he directed 6 episodes of House, which is interesting. His only current work in progress is a TV movie, but I hope he gets another theatrical release, because he has real potential. His directing style is creative and has a personal flair. His sense of film style comes out in scenes such as the fast paced flashback sequence. He deserves another theatrical release if he desires one.

“Repo Men” is not just an action film, it’s not even mainly an action film. It’s mainly a sci-fi drama/thriller, and a pretty good one at that. I’m not a big sci-fi fan, I honestly don’t care much for the genre, but I know when one does it right. I saw the unrated version of this film, and it was very gory. In a good way mind you. It was a little excessive but not to the point of torture porn like “Hostel” or “Saw”.  There is an action scene towards the end of the film which is a gory as hell knife fight, and really makes me wish that there were more awesome knife fights in movies. “The Raid Redemption” has perhaps the greatest knife fights in a movie. Just letting you know.

There are a lot of digital effects in the film, some look a little weaker than others, and even a little dated (Which is odd seeing as it was made in 2010) But overall the effects look really good.

Repo Men is no masterpiece, but it is an enjoyable film. It has plenty of problems and at times has a B movie vibe, but I’ve always enjoyed that vibe regardless.

“Repo Men” is worth watching. Not a must see, but if the opportunity presents itself, check it out. 

Spec Ops: The Line (2012 PS3 game review)

Spec Ops: The Line was recently added to the instant game collection for playstation plus users, which is basically a list of downloadable free games. Honestly I only played this because it was free. I knew nothing going into the game.

I was surprised upon starting the game to find that it’s in 3rd person. I had thought that it was going to be in 1st person. I like both 3rd and 1st person games, I was just surprised is all.

With a name like “Spec Ops: The Line” I was expecting a generic war game. I was dead wrong. This game is anything but generic. It’s true that it takes place in a conflict that is now familiar, but it is handled differently. The environments are handled gracefully and certain set pieces and locals are just gorgeous. The graphics are nothing revolutionary but look great all the same. There is however quite a bit of texture popping.

In the game you play as an american soldier. You think your enemy would be locals, terrorists, “bad guys”, no. You are fighting other american soldiers who have gone AWOL and have turned against you. That is a very original twist on an old formula. This is also the focus of the story, and it is a very interesting one at that.

The main character in Spec Ops is voiced by Nolan North. The same guy who voices Nathan Drake, and pretty much every other 3rd person BAMF there is. It’s not surprising at all that he is in so many games. He is probably the greatest voice actor working in video games. The character of Nathan Drake is so memorable and well constructed that for the first bit of Spec Ops I felt like I was playing as a Nathan Drake who made a few different career choices. North does a great job of separating himself from the role. The character comes into his own once the game gets going.

North’s character is really well constructed. He goes through a very slow progression throughout the game (Which you have some control in.) Which adds depth and drama to both the character and to the overall story. The character at the end of the game is almost unrecognizable compared to him at the start of the game. As his character arc unfolds there are some intense moments of exceptional strong voice acting. North is great at conveying strong, genuine emotions through his voice. I’ve heard that all of the voice acting for the game was recorded in chronological order one single day, which if that’s true makes it all the more impressive.

All of the main characters are very well constructed and acted. The performances and writing are solid, so much so that the characters carry great emotional weight. This is how you build characters. Other games should strive for the cinematic quality of Spec Ops.

The story has a very Apocalypse Now feeling

The game play is top notch 3rd person action. The cover system can be a bit finicky at times and the running can be awkward, but other than that, the controls work perfectly. The action is exciting, fun, and does not get repetitive. There are many different weapons that all feel unique and have their own benefits. I’m glad that most current games tend to have worked in brutal melee combat. Spec Ops has a slight difference when it comes to melee. The actual melee is lame. You just knock the guy over, but then you have finishers, which are brutal as hell. There are good amount of these and vary depending on what weapon you are carrying.

A shootout taking place in Dubai seems as though you would get tired of staring at sand for hours. Fortunately the locations are excellently handled. There are deserts, but there are also hotels, aquariums, night clubs, and much more.

It annoys me when games cheap out on gore. When a bomb goes off people explode Goddamn it, not fly through the air intact. Spec Ops does not cheap out in any way and is truly harrowing in key moments in the game.

There are some truly great set pieces such as running through a crumbling building while a helicopter flies after you shooting, while at the same time a man over the radio plays the song Verdi Dies Irae and sings along to it. One of the greatest gameplay and music collaborations since I burnt down a pot field with a flamethrower while listening to hardcore electric reggae in Farcry 3.

The music in the game, both pre-existing and original score are great and fit the tone wonderfully.

The game has multiplayer, but it is really just a side attraction to increase replay-ability. It’s pretty much throwaway.

The gameplay and visuals are good, but the story is the strongest aspect of the game. Which really blew me away considering I thought it would be the weakest. The title makes the game sound like a generic war shooter. It’s the worst title for a great game. I’d hate for people to not play the game based on the title. This is one case where you definitely should not judge a book by it’s cover. The story from beginning to end (especially end) is superb and is really great emotional ride. You’ll be surprised how engrossed you get in the characters and the choices that they have to make. A true cinematic experience inside of a very fun action shooter. The only major problem really is that the game is very short. Only about 6 hours. I generally think that a game need to be at least 8 hours, but I don’t honestly think it should have really been any longer. They could have inflated the story to accommodate more action, but that would lessen the overall experience.

The game touches upon some very deep ideas and has strong messages of it’s own. Spec Ops: The Line has great writing and voice acting, and makes for a great experience. Definitely worth at least one play through. I hope more games like this will follow in upcoming years.

 

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Spoiler free

“Punch-Drunk Love” Is a film by Paul Thomas Anderson. PTA is the man behind other films like “Boogie Nights” and “There Will Be Blood”. His films are very distinctive of his style and are always very original and story driven. Let me see if this makes sense; His stories have more story than the average story. what I mean is that, his movies tend to lack set pieces and anything that is not completely crucial to the story. There is no filler in PTA’s films even though they do sometimes have a slow pace.

“Punch-Drunk Love” stars Adam Sandler which may seem weird at first since this is a very serious film. There are some comedic moments, but this is far from the comedy films that Sandler is known. I have to say that I was very impressed by Sandler’s performance. Many comedic actors venture into drama and fail miserably. Whats worse is when they come back to comedy, but somehow lost the ability to be funny *cough* Jim Carrey *cough*. PTA is one of the those directors like Quentin Tarantino that really knows how to bring out the best performances in his actors. Adam Sandler gives a great performance as Barry Egan, a very complex and interesting character.

Costarring we have Emily Watson who does a sufficient job, but is nothing very noteworthy. The other Co-star I feel the need to mention is Philip Seymour Hoffman who actually has a very small role in the scheme of things. Him and the parent teacher association have worked together on most of his other films, from “Hard Eight” to PTA’s most recent film “The Master” (Which I have yet to be able to see, but hope to very soon.) Philip Seymour Hoffman has somewhat of a small role, but he has a key role in the story. It seemed to me like he was doing a Jack Black impression. I’m sure he wasn’t, but it was an amusing thought.

The music is great. The soundtrack consists of some very weird songs, that seem to be little more than compilations of sounds. It’s strange that it works so well, but it really does work perfectly in the scenes that it’s in.

Cinematography in “Punch-Drunk Love” is absolutely beautiful. Each shot in the movie is carefully crafted, the camera movement all has meaning and adds to the scene it’s in, and the lighting is wonderful. The Parent Teacher Association knows how to visually decorate a film. He is a true master of film technique and convention. His films feel like complete experiences. Emotional journeys that have a true purpose.

The story in “Punch-Drunk Love” is great. Very strange, but great. It’s all over the place and it leaves some things unanswered, but it’s really special. Stories are not often as high caliber as they are in “Punch-Drunk Love”

“Punch-Drunk Love” looks sleaker, has a better story, and has better acting than most films. Definitely go out of your way to watch this film. It’s a deep engrossing cinematic experience.