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By N2H

Archive for the 'Reviews' Category

 

Jimmy Carr Makes Me Laugh [Under-Exaggeration]

Nov 30, 2008 in Random, Reviews

(If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS/Atom feed. Thanks for visiting! - Michael)

A recent “discovery” of mine is British comedian Jimmy Carr. I admit, when I thought of British comedy before, well, it seemed a bit weird or tame.

But I saw an article for Jimmy Carr’s In Concert DVD, and decided to check it out, just to see.

And then I checked out his other 3 DVDs right after.

I don’t know if the clips below (look bottom) will really show you enough to feel out his show, but he is amazing. I’m no expert stand-up comedians, but I’d rank him up there with Dave Chappelle as live acts I would definitely pay to see.

For a while I enjoyed Chris Rock (I saw his newest special, Kill the Messenger, a month ago or so), but he’s kind of lost the edge. He’s still as aggressive, but his act is more about him being funny rather than his material.

Dane Cook, I was a fan of his for a while 3-4 years ago, but now with every new special, it’s also much more about him and the Dane Cook brand than his material. He keeps becoming more and more of a glorified storyteller, and he bases so much of his stuff for his older fans, I can’t see anyone being introduced to his newest special and thinking, that guy is super hilarious. His fan base is super loyal and increased over the entire decade, and to his credit, Cook has been fantastic at building it, but his quality has really become irrelevant. His formula now is to tell a 20 minute story, filled with sounds and cute expressions, and ending it in a big loud payoff that is funny because he emphasizes it as funny and because everyone in the crowd likes him.

Back to Jimmy Carr, though, I am actually thinking to myself that if I could go travel to England, I hope Jimmy Carr is performing somewhere so I could go see him.

Carr’s style reminds me a bit of Mitch Hedberg- he plays a lot with language and the meaning of words, most of his jokes are super short, 2-3 lines. He has the ability to make you laugh startlingly every 15 seconds consistently for 1.5 hours. But where he really stands out is how he interacts with the crowds and how he mixes his act up. He has “set pieces” where he’ll sit down and do a little of something different. It’s not just stand-up, it actually feels like a show or a theater performance. On one DVD, he sits down and shows the crowd personal ads he wrote, then on another, he does an advice column.

With the crowds, he’s just incredibly quick and witty- he welcomes all challengers and puts them down easily, but all with a grace you’d (Americans) expect from an “Englishman”. There’s a lot of swearing and raunchiness, but the tone and mood of the show is more good fun rather than more of an American style-aggressiveness.

Here’s the list of his released DVDs and some sample footage:

  • Jimmy Carr: Live (2003)
  • Jimmy Carr: Stand Up (2005)
  • Jimmy Carr: Comedian (2007)
  • Jimmy Carr: In Concert (2008)
  • Tackling Hecklers:

    F*ck Buddies:

    Random Compilation:

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    Quantum of Solace [REVIEW]

    Nov 17, 2008 in Movies, Reviews

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    What does Quantum of Solace mean? I still don’t know after watching it. (One side note: it actually came out in VN the same weekend as it did in the US!)

    What is evident, though, is that QoS fails where Casino Royale succeeded.

    Casino Royale with a new Bond, was about a deeper chemistry between characters, deeper motivations, tension without cheesiness and inappropriate “wink, wink” comedic moments. Sure, I absolutely loved Eva Green, but she was every much the star with Daniel Craig in the story, which I think

    Quantum of Solace, however, while still serious, is never able to retain any of that chemistry and psychological tension from its predecessor. Although you can tell the director is trying to reproduce another Casino Royale, ultimately what you have is a scene to scene action movie; all action, no real tension, no real excitement.

    And, lots of just ridiculous scenes. If you haven’t seen it yet, just come back here after you have and read the following words: airplane, hotel, girl childhood trauma. Those were pretty silly weren’t they?

    Olga Kurylenko does her job of looking good in the movie, but she is ultimately useless. She actually detracts from the movie, not because of herself as an actor, but her character has no real role other than that every Bond film needs a good looking woman. Take her completely out, and the movie is quite possibly better.

    Daniel Craig isn’t given a lot of room to show off what he can do- he’s angry and still hurting from the events of Casino Royale, but it doesn’t really show. I don’t blame him, I blame the director, as it’s obvious he just did not do a very good job.

    I gave it 6/10 on IMDB- worth a viewing once, but definitely can’t imagine wanting to see it again. What it did do, though, was make me want to go watch Casino Royale again.

    Here’s the trailer:

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    Metal Slug 7 (DS) [Review]

    Oct 27, 2008 in Reviews, Video Games

    Metal Slug 7 is a lot of fun. Worth the price, a lot of replay and challenge.

    The end.

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    Is it weird that I’m reviewing a game that isn’t for sale for another 3 weeks? (And I’m not press)

    Well, how I got the game doesn’t matter, you can guess for yourself, but Metal Slug 7 is nonetheless, challengingly, frustratingly, addictive fun.

    Why?

    Combat School Mode. Yes, that’s the only reason.

    If you like Metal Slug (MS), well, there’s nothing new. You have 2D side scrolling shooter action, 1 hit you’re dead gameplay. With MS 7, there are new weapons and characters that have different abilities, but ultimately, you need to shoot everything on screen and don’t get hit (ever) in the process. You pick a character, you have a gun to kill before being killed, you earn some better guns, and it’s all a survival thing.

    Sound and animation for the MS series have always been good, especially the animation of all the sprites- the characters, vehicles, weapons, everything. It’s not bloody, but actually a little cartoony with hints of humor. You’re a solider in some kind of war or battle, who knows? There really is no story that I know of.

    Metal Slug has always been fun in occasional play in arcades or on emulators, but I have questioned why anyone would want buy a home version. Normal arcade mode is super tough- you have a limited number of continues to try to beat all the missions. Only the most hardcore shooter fan would be happy with just that and most people wouldn’t enjoy it enough to buy it.

    But then there’s the Combat School Mode. There’s a list of 80 (Amazon says so) missions that are more focused to a special goal. So it’s no longer beat the game in 4 quarters but beat this mission in 1 life, or beat this mission with just the standard gun without dying, etc.

    And this is the real fun of Metal Slug. You can get your MS fun in smaller, more concentrated chunks, with a clear goal, and work you way through domination of the game. That is, it’s harder to really learn the game only through arcade mode- just too long and frustrating. But with the school missions, you can focus on one goal one at a time, and along the way, you’ll just learn so much more about the game that you’ll be able to take that knowledge for the normal mode if you want.

    For a portable game, the school mode really makes sense. Go to the airport, play a few missions, get frustrated get on the plane. After you land, get in the taxi, turn the DS back on, try them again. In the more focused missions, you start to get that ooooh, I was so close! I need to give it another try that doesn’t exist in the normal game mode.

    This is the kind of game that you’ll always want to pack with your DS whenever you go somewhere.

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    8 Minute Abs [Review]

    Oct 26, 2008 in Reviews, Sports (Other)

    Most people in the US are familiar with the 8 Minute exercise series.

    I actually bought the complete exercise set on DVD a few years ago, well before I went to Vietnam, so I’ve been using them for a while.

    Currently, I really only use the abs DVD, and it’s been more off and on (laziness) thing, but there have definitely been months at a time where I’ve done them 3-4 times a week.

    I think all of the routines are legit, just depends on you and your willingness to do it every day.

    These routines are more for toning rather than becoming super strong, but you will get stronger in any muscle group you focus on as well.

    It’s odd we think of 8 minutes as a short amount of time, but it’s not that short when you’re focused with these routines- the major difference you’ll notice between this and working out by yourself is you’re actually doing this for a continuous 8 minutes, and I’m sure this is where the effectiveness comes in. You’re bringing blood and muscle activity for a full 8 minutes, you’re just rotating the exact muscles you’re working on as the exercises change. Because of the rotation, you don’t get super tired- try doing straight crunches (hands behind the head, elbows in line with your shoulders) just for 2-3 minutes and see how hard that is.

    From my experience with abs exercises, the main thing working out does is it pulls your stomach closer, it forms a shape for you. Of course, you should have a good diet and take care of yourself in general, but if you do the ab exercises and slim down in general, you’ll see a box (the washboard in washboard abs) start to form around your stomach. The more you do, and less fat you have there, the better you’ll look.

    8 Minute Abs is better than pure straight-ahead crunches because it targets all your ab areas on the sides, upper and lower, so you have a more well-done muscle tone. Normal crunches tend to be more upper abs oriented.

    If there’s a weakness to the exercise, I would see there isn’t so much focus on lower abs, or at least I don’t think they get as developed as much as the other muscles, but those are things you can work on yourself by just repeating some of the relevant exercises on the program.

    Check it for yourself below:

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    Catwoman (DC) V2 1-75 [Review]

    Oct 09, 2008 in Reviews

    I’d heard great things about the Catwoman revamp from Darwyn Cooke and Ed Brubaker (Cooke only stayed on for the first four issues, but redid the costume and logo, while Brubaker did 3 years worth) a long time ago, and I’d even bought the first trade, but it hadn’t struck me as all that special. Nothing bad, just not so interesting.

    Then, for whatever reason, years later, I decided to give it another chance last month, starting with the first 24 issues.

    I kept reading after that, all the way to the end.

    The early issues of Catwoman take away a lot of the super powered insanity you see in the other Batman universe titles; it’s not about super heroes or villains here, it’s about Selina Kyle and her friends. More character driven then superhero driven.

    It works. It feels different, but as you read more and more, you’ll really like the difference in storytelling.

    This is the reverse of the Batman titles. I’ve been unhappy with the Batman series’ for a long time, and this especially hurts because I’m such a big Batman fan. I think Batman, whose appeal partly lies in the fact that he seems to be the most realistic of the superheroes (You could be like Batman if you were in similar situation, while you could never be Superman), is very unrealistic. Batman is supposed to be a “What If” in an extreme situation, what could happen. Yet, when you see so many people in masks just being super villains or heroes, it doesn’t feel like the extreme created a Batman, that’s just how things are.

    In Catwoman, though, Brubaker keeps a realistic feel to it, though I’m not sure that’s quite the right word. It just seems smarter, and not for your average teenage reader. You feel like you’re delving more into each character, rather than watching them fight all the time. You’ve got Selina Kyle, her best friend Holly, noir detective Slam Bradley- the focus is always on them as people. There’s something that you can identify with and understand.

    Unfortunately, as Brubaker ends his run, this focus, and the quality, go away as well. While there are some interesting plotlines over the next 40 issues, with Will Pfeifer primarily in control, Catwoman slowly becomes like every other comic- event driven, not character driven. It feels like a generic superhero comic. The Catwoman series was cancelled in mid-arc earlier this year, but once you get to issue 75, you can understand why- it’s not so bad, just not good.

    My recommendation: Follow Brubaker’s run from in issues 1-33 (the Wargames issues are worthless, though that’s probably how I feel about all crossovers), after that read until you find it boring. There’s no recovery in quality over time, it just falls away.

    Some of the covers from the series (software courtesy of ComicRack- not ComiCrack)

     

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    The Dark Knight Reaches Vietnam and I Have Seen It (Finally)

    Aug 30, 2008 in Movies, Reviews

    Tonight was the first night of Dark Knight’s release in Vietnam. I saw it at Vincom in Hanoi, had the best seats in the house, in my opinion. (Thanks Thuy)

    As much a Batman fan as I am, I have to side with Kyle “you won’t be disappointed. you just may not think it’s the greatest movie of all time.” it’s not but it is very, very good” and Trench.

    John said it was the best movie of all time, something I suggested myself in January, but more jokingly. Emil and Mike really liked it as well.

    So, it was very very good. But there was something…missing.

    For me, a movie has to hit an emotional edge to really get me to just love it. Batman Begins was excellent but was missing this. The Dark Knight is the same way. I never felt extremely excited, happy, or sad, just not real super strong reaction to the movie. Movies that can make me feel a certain way keep on resonating through time. For me, The Matrix, My Sassy Girl, Heat, Godfather, those are the movies that ultimately rank among my favorite movies of all time.

    The story has incredible depth. I can tell it will hold up amazing through multiple viewings, and I think I will end up seeing 3 times with various people within the next 2 weeks. The movie is about constant struggle for balance. An action means a equal reaction. Things that should happen (but usually don’t in movies for the sake of a good or happy ending) do happen here. Things in this world are “fair”, which make not make sense until you watch the movie. Characters have to balance each other, events have to balance. To me, this is the ultimate Joker story regardless of whether you’re talking about the comics, animated series, whatever. This is the true Joker. I just reread The Killing Joke, and some of the interactions between Joker and Batman are similar to those in The Dark Knight.

    The movie asks so many questions about the character of humanity, question of sanity, I would use the term “morality play”, but I don’t even know what that word means.

    I gave it a 9/10 on IMDB.

    Other random notes:

    • It’s long. Not that I don’t like long movies, or that maybe this was too long, but I did notice it was long.
    • Everything shown in the various trailers, (I think I’ve seen 6 or 7 different ones) only takes you to half of the movie. I was quite surprised, and basically had no idea what was coming. What I assumed what was the end of the movie was just the middle part of it.
    • Normally, you see a great movie, and you’d love to see the sequel ASAP. But with this, I feel like it was such a deep story, that you need time before seeing another one. Especially with the movie’s ending, we actually need a good length of real time to transpire so we can be ready for the next story.
    • Batman Begins was focused on making a real-life based what-if version of the character, but Dark Knight starts to lose some of that. This is where you get into an extreme of an extreme unlikelihood.
    • This is a mature and adult story. Like I said, it will hold up for a long time and repeated viewings.
    • “Why so serious” “Let’s put a smile on that face”- I am fairly certain the way they sound in the trailers versus how they sound in the movie is not the same.

    As a side note, I’m going to try to buy the Vietnamese version of the Dark Knight movie (Vietnamese text) poster. I’ll put up a picture of it if I’m successful.

    There’s two I’ve seen, one’s the motorbike one, and the other is this one, the Joker one. I’ll be wanting the Joker.

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    The Godfather (Xbox) [Review]

    Jul 24, 2008 in Reviews, Video Games

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    In EA’s Godfather for the XBox, you can, should, and will:

    • Rob banks
    • Get “respect” from hookers
    • Hang out with the Corleone Family
    • Get vengeance for “the family”
    • Execute villains in more than 20 different ways
    • Pay off the fuzz (the cops)
    • Yell out “Toasty” when you douse some fools in a well thrown Molotov Cocktail
    • Bomb safes
    • Blow off kneecaps
    • Extort all of New York
    • Mostly enjoy the 20+ hours of wreaking havoc

    Playing through Godfather, I have come to the following conclusion: shooting people in the head is a lot of fun.

    Murder 1000 people in various ways:

    • Run over them
    • Throw them off bridges
    • Beat them into submission with your fists
    • Easy-bake them in pizzeria ovens
    • Choke them

    (I hope no one quotes this blog in a study of video game violence.)

    Godfather is what everyone will surely describe as Grand Theft Auto with a Godfather skin. This is fairly correct- if you can play GTA, you can pickup Godfather as well. However, these games are usually described more as “sandbox” games, games that you can basically mold your own experience. Incidentally, I never had a sandbox when I was a kid, so I’m not sure what that means for this review.

    Godfather, to me, though, doesn’t feel like a true free-form sandbox experience. You have an open world, you can drive around, do anything at any time (you can do a story based mission, or you can try other side missions, like taking extorting a business, or becoming a murderer-for-hire), but the missions themselves are very linear. Often, you’ll have missions which may have two or three parts to them, but in each part, pretty much every player has to do the same thing- there really aren’t options for stealth or sniping or creative methods; instead, you just need to get in there up close and kill, with the only option being what weapon you want to use. Missions will have bonuses that tell you exactly what you need to do, so there’s no creativity in how you do it, and little reason to try to be.

    I wouldn’t say this is such a negative, I enjoyed the game regardless.

    The game takes place in the time of the first Godfather movie. You’re a new recruit to the Corleone gangster family, and you go through the game trying to prove your loyalty and capabilities. You’ll be able to name yourself (but you are always a man) and create a custom look among a myriad of fashion options, but no matter what you’ll probably always look stylish, like any respectable gangster would. The type of missions you’ll see are what you’d expect if you’ve watched any Mafia movie. You do what they do. Extort. Murder. Talk to cops. Beat up people. Hang out in casinos.

    The biggest draw to the game for most people will be the tie-in to the movie universe. You not only meet the characters (excellent character models) and hear old (from the movie) and new recorded footage from the real actors (except for Al Pacino), you’ll also participate in many of the key story sequences from the movie. This is where Godfather really excels in comparison to other movie property games. The integration of the movie and the game world is very well done, the missions here make a lot of sense and seem realistic within that frame. That means that you could actually add the Godfather game to the movie storyline, and the plot would still work. This is rarely the situation with other movie games, which will add pointless sequences related to the movie’s story but would have never happened.

    Godfather is a fairly lengthy game, but the central story missions run fairly short, with slightly over 20 missions. You can get through those in less than 7 hours, but the side missions, however, were much more engaging than I expected- taking over neighborhoods and taking more direct action to affect the other Mafia families is truly rewarding. If you want, you can end up taking all over New York, and basically collecting every property in the game Pokemon style- gotta catch em all!

    There are some negatives however:

    • You’re primarily a one man show, which I thought disappointing, especially when you’ve feel like you earned some respect but still need to infiltrate a family compound and taken on 30 guys all by yourself.
    • Clumsy weapon selection system- I wish more games would pause when you’re selecting weapons. If you suddenly have 2-3 people coming after you when you don’t have a gun ready, you’re probably going to die. On the PC, you could probably press a number to unveil a weapon instantly; in Godfather you have to scroll through them with the directional pad.
    • There’s essentially one song in the whole game. Guess what that is…..
    • This is a game with a story, but there’s no character development. You have a role in the story, but you’re not really part of the story if that makes any sense.
    • All the fun is mainly on foot. Cars can be used to run over people and get you to different places, but there’s not much else otherwise that you can do.

    Despite those issues, for those who enjoy the movie, Godfather is well worth picking up, and a good game that is improved by its connection to the movie universe and strong production values.

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    Burn Notice (Season 1) (TV) [Review]

    Jul 15, 2008 in Reviews, TV

    Mike recommended Burn Notice to me a week ago and when I was skimming through an episode, I was thinking, this show might suck.

    But good news, it doesn’t!

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    At first glance, The USA Network’s Burn Notice reminded me of a cheesy 80’s TV show- maybe I was influenced by its formula of serious, but-not-too-serious action/drama, by the fact that it takes place in Miami, like Miami Vice, which I don’t know a lot about but knew it wasn’t really a show to take seriously, and maybe because of Bruce Campbell, Mr. “Come Get Some”.

    I wouldn’t call it a super best-of-TV show, but it’s fun and entertaining. Season 2 just started last week.

    It’s a mix of:

    • Miami Vice
    • Foxhunt (Full Motion Video PC game from 1996)
    • McGuyver
    • Bond, James Bond
    • Bruce Campbell being sarcastic
    • Pretender (the NBC TV Show that was on a decade ago)

    Jeffrey Donovan is Michael Westen, the guy you see above. He used to be a spy.

    From Wikipedia:

    Jeffrey Donovan plays Michael Westen, the show’s focal character. Michael is a covert operative who has been “burned” (i.e., tagged as an unreliable or dangerous agent) who now finds himself in his hometown of Miami, unable to leave. With his assets frozen, Michael is forced to live off his wits and any small investigative jobs he can find while he pursues the person or persons who burned him. Highly skilled and extremely clever, Michael displays his abilities by quickly thinking on his feet, improvising electronic devices from commonly available commercial equipment such as radios and cell phones, and by using ordinary items such as duct tape or cake frosting in highly unorthodox ways in order to complete a job. Michael has two black belts (or as he put it in one episode “thirty years of karate“) and is “rated with anything that fires a bullet or holds an edge.” He believes that his unhappy childhood, largely at the hands of an abusive father, helped make him into a natural covert operative, but made relationships difficult for him. Michael presents himself as a cynic hardened by experience, but soon reveals a soft, and sometimes vulnerable, side.

    Gabreille Anwar is the pretty girl (in poster) that every show has to have. She’s tough, a little crazy, but she’s a badass. She’s a weapons pro.

    Gabrielle Anwar plays Fiona Glenanne, a former IRA operative and Westen’s ex-girlfriend. Fiona re-enters Michael’s life when he was dumped, half-dead, in Miami, and she decides to stay, quickly making herself valuable to Michael. Highly knowledgeable about guns and explosives, Fiona provides support to Michael on his investigations and at times, assists him in mission to find out who burned him.

    Bruce Campbell, while generally overrated in life (people really seem to love him a little too much), does a good job of just being a funny but loyal partner. He reminds me of a dog in that sense, but I mean that in a good way.

    Bruce Campbell plays Sam Axe, an aging semi-retired intelligence operative and former Navy SEAL. With a low amount of cash-on-hand to his name, Axe spends most of his time sleeping with rich, older Miami women in exchange for food and shelter. Sam and Westen are old buddies; Sam is also Westen’s last, tenuous contact in the official spy community. Sam presents himself as “the guy who knows a guy.”

    Throw in some fun, but crazy family members in Michael’s mom and brother for some dramatic and comedic relief, and it all somehow works pretty well.

    Back to the show itself:

    Like I said, it’s a little bit of……

    • Miami Vice: it takes place in Miami. Sometimes you see fruity shirts and white suits.
    • Foxhunt: Spy comedy, a little goofy sometimes. Jeffrey Donovan does a good job as Westen, but the way he plays the role is definitely unique. He’s tough, definitely masculine, but he’s not a super serious character either, it’s not the kind of intensity you find in Daniel Craig’s James Bond.
    • McGuyver: This is probably one of the most unique aspects of the show. Since Westen is burned, he doesn’t have the resources he used to, and so when he’s in trouble he’s got to make stuff up on the fly. For example, one episode discusses making a homemade sticky bomb. This part of the show is the best; Westen often has monologues to discuss the perspective and thinking of a spy, how one would look at a situation and prepare, and he’ll talk about making different types of weapons with relatively common (household) items. I don’t even know if everything he says is really true, but it sounds true, so it makes you think, “Let me write this down for later, maybe I can become a spy too”
    • Bond: Well, Michael Westen’s a spy and very cool, very slick. Gadgets are home made, and Gabrielle Anwar adds the sexiness.
    • Bruce Campbell: He’s what you expect. It’s kind of odd there were once rumors he could play Batman- I think this was in the Batman Forever days though.
    • Pretender: Michael plays different roles, changing accents fairly well in the process. Every episode, while he’s trying to solve the ultimate mystery of the burn notice, he’s also helping some person in need, like the Pretender, for little personal reward, always keeping a cool head.

    Here’s a well-rated fan trailer of the show:

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    Professor Layton and The Curious Village (DS) [Review]

    Jul 13, 2008 in Reviews, Video Games

    I told Kyle that Professor Layton and The Curious Village (Layton) is like being Sherlock Holmes without the cocaine.

    prof_layton

    That’s not quite true, that was just me trying to be funny. Layton is an adventure game where you take the role of the Professor and his young protege Luke. The pair have been invited to St. Mystere (the curious village) to solve a mystery of inheritance. Once they get to the village, however, many more mysteries (puzzles) are unveiled, and the duo have to solve them all in order to unlock the initial mystery of the inheritance.

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    Layton is a bit different from a normal point and click adventure game like The Lost Journey or the old LucasArts SCUMM games. The puzzles here are more straight forward. Click on a person or item, and a puzzle prompt will come up, and you’ll be given a chance to solve it.

    Contrast this with other games where you may not know what you’re supposed to do, and how you’re supposed to do it, Layton is never confusing, and that’s what I like about it. Over 120 puzzles in all, and I hear you can download more over the DS if you have connect it to the Internet.

    The puzzles you see are reminders of IQ tests or MENSA, or the GMAT. Basically, if you do well on these, you feel like you’ve proven something (I told you I was smart, DS! EAT THAT!) For the most part, they’re fair, but there are a few that a worded trickily (to trick you!)

    You can find coins placed in random areas that can be used to buy hints for puzzles you may get stuck on. Kyle said he didn’t use any, which suggests to me he is Sherlock Holmes because I was using coins all the time. That and tremendous help from the girlfriend really helped me get through the game, although I outright cheated (Gamefaqs-style) once.

    The cover art (see above) says “Solve brainteasers to crack the case”, and yeah, there you go, that’s right.

    Layton is an outstanding game, it oozes (way to pick an uncommon phrase, me) quality. The puzzles are a ton of fun, but there’s also an interesting story that uses well-animated CG cut-scenes and voiceover work that create a deeper level of immersion. For those looking for replay, you can replay any puzzle after you’ve solved it, and while you don’t have to solve every puzzle to finish the game or do them in order, finishing more puzzles will unlock even MORE puzzles, so definitely worth going the extra effort.

    I’d recommend this to anyone. Definitely worth a purchase, and worth your time.

    Bring me the sequel! (might be coming in November)

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    (No Homo) Ryan Reynolds – The Nines [Review]

    Jul 07, 2008 in Movies, Reviews

    Continuing my recent man crush parade on Ryan Reynolds, I checked out The Nines, a movie released late last year.

    It’s really hard to describe the movie, and when I read the general plot line, it didn’t seem interesting at all. Even if you watch the trailer below, it doesn’t seem that interesting.

    But I watched it for Ryan Reynolds (ladies, he takes off his shirt in this, and if you have ever seen him with his shirt off, you will understand and appreciate why I mention this), and it was worth it. He is excellent in this, but so is everyone else.

    (I wish I had his abs. When I watch basketball, I sometimes get excited and want to go shoot hoops- Ryan Reynolds makes me want to go do crunches.

    Whoa. That is very much a least some homo there. Moving on….)

    It’s quite a good movie, it’s a bit of a conceptual piece (though not as much as The Fountain that slowly comes into focus. You just can’t really talk about it or describe it in a way to make people understand if they should see it or not. At the same time I can see it being a this-is-weird, miss, or this-is-awesome, hit type of movie.

    I’m on the side of hit, giving it a 7/10 on IMDB.

    Like I just said it feels a bit off, but I think that’s what’s intended. It’s hard to know how to rate it. I have some more to say about it, but I consider it a bit of a spoiler, so it’s after the trailer. I suggest not reading in order to focus more on the movie experience.

    In the middle of the movie, one of the characters is doing a test pilot focus group. People are watching a TV show pilot and then giving feedback on the show. When I watched the movie, that’s how I felt- I felt like there was some concept or some idea that was being pushed to me. Not as focused or mature as it normally should belike you’d seen in a TV show in its 3rd of fourth year, but I felt like the person being tested, being gauged to see if I could follow the movie, was it interesting, did I like the characters.

    Very unique, and my assumption is this was intended.

    Trailer:

    (The Nines Trailer)

    *****Potential Spoilers******

    I read an article a couple of months ago talking about how there’s a good possibility we’re (our universe/world) just part of a simulation. Kind of how we’re trying to make video games now that simulate real life, this world could be someone’s advanced artificial intelligence simulation. This idea was somewhat shown at the end of Men in Black- remember how they kept zooming out and eventually the entire universe was shown as one marble an alien was playing marbles with?

    Basically, we are not all that in the universe, where universe means everything we can or cannot imagine. It’s an idea I very much believe in, and on a religious level, I know that there was no way I could understand the concept of a higher being or a god. Having that kind of awareness will instantly make me insane.

    Anyway, let’s going back to The Nines, this is the concept that the movie wraps itself in.

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