Series review: Hannibal season 1

Take a seat, turn off the lights and enjoy the dark stories and graphic imagery of murder, cannibalism and psychological torment in the fantastic new TV series featuring Hannibal "the cannibal" Lecter.

We once again get to see our favorite psychopath Dr. Hannibal Lecter in a TV series taking place prior to the events of Red dragon. The story revolves around exploring the relationship between Hannibal and Will Graham, an FBI profiler who suffers from his ability to empathize with serial killers.

Hannibal is the darkest TV series I have ever seen - in just about every sense of the word. It is violent, graphic, psychologically ominous, with both a visual and auditory presence that amplifies the content and general atmosphere of the show.
This is one of Hannibal's greatest aspects. Because while it's almost never downright scary, it has an unpleasant ambiance to it.
Another great aspect is one of the main focuses of the entire story - the relationship between Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter, and the characters themselves, played by Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy.

Movie review: Oz: The Great And Powerful

Welcome back to the wondrously and imaginative magical land of Oz, before the time when Dorothy wandered along the yellow brick road and things were a bit ...less wondrous and imaginative.

A poster depicting the incredibly beautiful scenery of Oz: The Great And Powerful

The movie begins in black and white and in the old 4:3 format as we see Oscar "Oz" Diggs (played by James Franco) in the time before he ventured to the land of Oz.
Here he is a womanizing con-man and a magician who has his own magic show on a traveling circus, bossing around his underling, Frank (played by Zach Braff), and dreams of becoming more than a good man - a great man. He is so intent on becoming one that he even gives up the woman he loves, Annie (played by Michelle Williams), for his goal.
However, as a result of his debauchery, he is forced to flee in a hot air balloon from one the men whose wife/girlfriend he has romanced. Once up in the air, he's caught in a tornado where he pleads to be saved and swears he will become a great man if he survives.

He is then transported to the magical land of Oz.

Game review: Borderlands 2

Make yourself comfortable as you once again take stride as a vault hunter on the planet Pandora, where you will kill, loot, purchase and sell, loot, chase and be chased by Handsome Jack and his minions, loot, and blow shit up! …and loot. Oh, and did I mention loot. LOOT!

Yes, Borderlands is back, in its entire looting and gun-crazy splendor! It's been 5 years since the end of the last game and in that time, a certain joke-cracking villain (who constantly refer himself as the hero) by the name Handsome Jack has appeared. He became super-duper rich by mining the strange mineral known as eridium that poured out of the planet when the vault opened at the end of the previous game. He has then used that fortune to make himself head of the Hyperion corporation and has been up to all kinds villainy and whatnot.

The game opens with an intro video introducing the four playable character types: Gunzerker, Commando, Siren, and Assassin chasing Jack, and gets blown up in the process. As you start playing, the hilariously irritating little robot Cl4p Trap finds you in the snow and “helps” you out in the beginning.

From there on out it’s a never ending barrage of killing and looting as you try to find and stop Handsome Jack.

Movie review: Se7en (rewatch)

Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi.

Anime review: Natsume Yuujinchou Shi

The fourth season of Natsume Yuujinchou is here. But is it as good as it's predecessors? The answer is "I guess..."

Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him. Containing the names of these spirits, a binding contract was formed between the spirits and the owner of the book. Now, Natsume is determined to free the spirits and dissolve the contracts. With the help of a spirit cat - Madara/Nyanko-sensei, his days are filled trying to return the names to these spirits. 

- Source: Anime News Network

Game review: Bayonetta (Xbox 360)

Killing angels have never felt - and looked so good!

Bayonetta is a third person shooter centering around a sexy four-gun wielding witch named Bayonetta who spends her days killing all kinds of angels in the most stylish manners.

What did I expect from Bayonetta before I began playing it?

I had heard that the game's pace was very fast, the visuals were cool and the heroine - Bayonetta herself was smokin' hot. That's about it.

Did it deliver on these aspects? Hell yeah it did! That and more!

One thing I hadn't heard about it that I love is the immensely entertaining "combo fighting style" the game uses, which I consider to be a mix of a fighting game and a hack n' slash. Or maybe most hack n' slash - like God of War and Devil May Cry - are like this. I haven't played many games in this genre. But if they're like Bayonetta, then consider me a future fan of those two franchises :)

Anime review: Ben-To

While innocently reaching for some half priced bento, You Satou finds himself beaten up on the floor of a supermarket. He soon learns that getting half-priced bento is an all-out brawl between customers. Satou is invited to the Half-Priced Food Lovers Club by one of the top fighters, Sen Yarizui (a.k.a. The Ice Witch), in order to train to compete in these battles.

Movie review: Looper

In 2072, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent 30 years into the past, where a hired gun awaits. Someone like Joe. But Joe makes the biggest of mistakes when his older self gets sent back and manages to escape.

I went into Looper with extremely high hopes. I'm not fully sure where these expectations came from, but ever since I've heard about this movie, I've wanted to see it. And the more I noticed people and critics praising, the more I wanted to see it. I was so eager to see it I nearly wet myself. So it's no surprise why I came out of the theater a tad let down.

That's not to say that it was a bad movie. Not at all. In fact, it was a good sci-fi sction thriller. It had suspense, action, good characters, human drama, and even some comedy, and it didn't get tied up in the whole time travelling aspect.

Review: Invisible Worlds

Invisible Worlds is a BBC documentary mini series about things in our world that or eyes don't have the capacity to see. Too fast movements, infrared light, microscopic activities are some subjects these three episodes discuss.

The actual title (on IMDB at least) is "Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds". Richard Hammond is the narrator/presenter of the three episodes. And that's all he has to do with this series. Which is why I don't want to classify this series by that name. If he had been the main producer and/or the director, THEN I might have felt comfortable calling the series by that name.

Anyway, on to the actual documentary.

First things first; I loved this documentary. I loved it because it's gorgeous (duh, it's BBC), informative, interesting, cool, and really entertaining. I never felt bored while watching this. In fact, I was glued to the screen from the very first minute to the very last. I saw with some friends and we marveled at some incredible sequences and laughed because of some other ones.

Anime review: Another

In the spring of 1998, a 15 year old boy named Sakakibara Kouichi transfers to the countryside town Yamiyama. He soon grows suspicious of the fearful atmosphere surrounding his classroom - class 3. In particular, there is a strange girl named Misaki Mei who wears an eyepatch and is always alone drawing pictures.

Another is in many aspects a classic horror tale.The music, the setting, the mysterious and secretive inhabitants, and death. These aspects are nothing new, but used right it can result in an effective scary story.
Surprisingly, the end result turned out quite well.

The first half of the series was honestly very creepy. Now, while it wasn't actually downright scary, it is still among the scariest anime I've seen. And that is ...kinda sad actually when you think about it.

However, it's not just some creepy and gory scenes spread out over 12 episodes. There's also a mystery, a couple of romantic moments and some decent character development.

...But it's mainly creepy and gory scenes.

Anime review: Bakuman 2

Bakuman 2. the second season revolving around a pair of manga authors - Mashiro Moritaka and Takagi Akito - and their peers, as they try to make a name for themselves in the intense business world of manga publishing.

This was a terrific choice for my "return to anime", because it's so easily digestible and thus easy to marathon. I blasted through it in two days, and it didn't feel like a chore for a single second. When a series hooks you in in such a way that you just don't wanna stop watching it, you know they're doing something right.

One of the main reasons why I love this series so much is because of it's fantastic cast. Every single character is well written. They each have their own distinct personality, no one is perfect and we constantly get to see things from their perspective. I love how characters can be complete assholes at one moment, and very likable people in the next moment. Now that's what I call life-like :)

The cast is - to be honest - one of the overall best anime casts I've come across. And I've seen quite a bit of anime - or TV series all together. That is because every character is great by themselves, but also have very entertaining interactions with each other. Even minor aspects like Miura's and Yamahisa's rivalry is very entertaining, despite not amounting to much story-wise.

As for the negatives of this season; I feel that some may consider this to be TOO similar to the first season, because there is A LOT that is very similar. Personally, I just consider it to be more of the good stuff :)

Then there's also the OPs and EDs. They're not terrible, but they are definitely boring and I skipped them nearly every time. Granted, it's not a big thing and has nothing to do with the actual story, but for a series that's all about creating stuff the public will like, they sure dropped the ball in this aspect.

Also, I wasn't very fond of the whole "Takagi might cheat on Miyoshi" subplot, but fortunately,  it resolved itself both fast and satisfyingly. By the way, this seems like a good time to mention that Miyoshi is one of my favorite characters in the whole series. While not actually doing all that much, she is one of the strongest supporting pillars in the entire show.

The biggest minus I give it is that it is very childish/cheesy at times with some overly dramatic speeches and statements here and there. It may sound like a minor thing, but it's stuff like this that makes me weary of recommending many anime to my non-anime watching friends (i.e. all my friends). This is however nothing that detracted much of my overall enjoyment of it.

Nothing out of the ordinary here. Just another day in the manga business.

I'll end with saying thatI found this season be just as good as the first season. If you liked the first season then you'll almost definitely like this one as well. If you didn't like the first season, then you may as well stay away from this one.

"More of the same" has never rung so true and yet been so fulfilling.

8/9

Movie review: The Invention of Lying

I caught The Invention of Lying on TV yesterday. It started out great, the basic idea for it is really interesting. The world they live in where everyone tells the truth without holding anything back is hilarious in a refreshing, yet horrible way. This hilarity factor is of course greatly aided by Ricky Gervais' comic timing.

However, it does become quite a bit less entertaining the way it unfolds. That's not to say that it becomes terrible - just less enjoyable. But while it does take that route, the development of the main characters, and even this entire world is both well done and believable. The ending was also better than I expected.

All in all it's a decent and comfortable film.

6/9

Movie review: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

A friend of mine and I felt in the mood to watch a really silly comedy, and since neither of us had seen Anchorman in at least 5 years, we decided to rewatch it. And it was most definitely worth it :)

I haven't laughed this hard in several weeks. I nearly keeled over laughing in the "fight scene" and the scene following that. Not only that, it's also one of the few times when I've seen that particular friend of mine laugh just as hard. So we certainly enjoyed the movie.

One thing I just have to say is that it was actually sillier than I remembered. And I remembered it to be pretty damn silly. So effectively - it was ultra-silly! So much of the entire movie seems to be adlibbed. There are entire scenes where I wouldn't be surprised if it was completely made up of us Will Ferrell adlibbing the entire thing. One example that comes into mind is when Ferrell is having a conversation with his dog, Baxter, quite early on in the film.

While this isn't a "good film" by my standards, it is exactly what it advertises that it is, and it works extremely well. And therefor, I feel no quarrel with giving Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy an;

8/9

And I willl now anxiously await Anchorman 2.

Game review: Timeshift (Xbox 360)

Despite being quite entertaining, it was quite bland and forgettable. You'd think that wouldn't be the case with a FPS shooter whose game play centers around bending time to your will, but unfortunately it is. However, it was not only bland, it was also a bit of a copycat. The main character is a "silent type" hero who's a physicist that a lot of the time dukes it out in a repressed modern city where the antagonistic ruler appears on huge monitors throughout the city babbling about various stuff.

Sound familiar much?

Unlike the struggles of Gordon Freeman, the story and characters here were completely boring and uninteresting. Hell, they're practically nonexistent. Even though I played through the entire game sober ( which wasn't the case with games such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or Fable II) I had no idea who the antagonistic was or what he was after. There wasn't a single character in the entire game I can with clear conscious call an actual character. Not even the playable protagonist. That can't simply be filed under lazy writing. No, it's so much more than that. That's either incompetence or the creators just didn't care. Personally, I believe it's the latter, because there didn't even seem to be any attempt at it. They only seemed to care about making a fast paced shooter with cool time altering abilities. And in that regard they... somewhat succeeded. I say somewhat because while it was pretty entertaining, I can't help but feel that they could have done so much more with their set up. For instance some more difficult puzzles or battles which would require some strategic thinking. Unfortunately, there wasn't any of that in this game, resulting in an overall mediocre experience.

If you're interested in this game, then my advice is to leave your brain at the door and just enjoy blasting some soldiers in slow motion or completely frozen time.

5/9

Series review: Frasier S1 (re-watch)

Frasier is a sitcom revolving around the radio psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane and the people close to him. His radio producer Roz Doyle, his younger brother - Dr. Niles Crane - who's also a psychiatrist, his dad - Martin Crane - who's a retired cop that has to move in with him because of an old injury, his dad's live-in physical therapist Daphne Moon and his dad's dog - Eddie.

The main cast: Roz, Niles, Daphne, Martin, Eddie and Frasier

Frasier is often hailed as one of the best written sitcoms out there, and I agree. It's very clever and witty, the stories are always interesting, none of the cast ever breaks character just to fit in a certain story line, and most important of all is that it's really funny.

Like all the best sitcoms Frasier is a very character driven show. Every conflict here derives from the characters own personalities and how they all differ from each other. And yet it never feels forced and it often manages to give us a touching conclusion to it's episodes. In the first season these conclusions belong to Martin and Frasier, but the rest of the cast all get their moments later on in the series.

The final episode of the first season is one of the best written sitcom episodes I have ever come across. It's up there with the likes of 30 Rock's "Reunion" (S03E05) and Malcolm In The Middle's series finale. Not only is it a terrific episode on it's own, but it's also a summary of the show as a whole with the story lines, conflicts, and general behavior and interactions of the main cast as they appear throughout the episode.

Frasier may be one of the best written sitcoms of all time and I relly enjoy watching it, but it's not laugh out loud funny all that often. Sure, there certainly are times when I've burst out laughing because of it, but it doesn't happen all that often. That and the fact that there a bit too many "awkward comedy" scenes in it keeps me from giving this season a full score. It's pretty damn close to it though.

Score: 8/9

Movie review: Prometheus

An exploratory team follow ancient directions to a distant planet in search of mankind's origin. It doesn't take them long to discover something much more dangerous than they expected.

Before I went to see this film I had barely heard a single thing about it. All I knew was that Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender starred in it, Ridley Scott directed it, it would most likely have some connection to the Alien franchise. That's about it. And yet I was really excited to see it. I'm not even sure why. Great advertising I guess.

The movie itself is quite a slow burner. It takes it's sweet time building up the setting and some of the cast before finally delving into the action. I'm not saying this as a complaint, but as a compliment. I tend to like these types of movies, if the payoff is good enough. And it is here. While not being excellent, it do deliver entertaining and exciting action packed sequences throughout the second half. However, what it lacks is the deep character introspective it pretty much promises by the way the movie starts. That's not to say that the cast is filled with nothing but shallow stereotypes. Far from it. Several of the characters are interesting and engaging. But outside of Michael Fassbender's character - David - the movie doesn't really delve far into the psyches of the crew. We get a peek, but that's it. In fact, that's an issue with the movie all together. For a movie that's ultimately about finding answers, we don't get that many answers. The movie teases us by bringing up a heap of questions, but sidesteps us with the answers.

Unfortunately, the movie isn't without it's stupid moments as well. Where the two dumbest scenes both revolve around the geologist and the biologist. In these scenes they act so confoundingly idiotic - especially for crew members on an expedition like this - that they're nothing more than the equivalent of dumb blonds in a teen slasher.

David (Michael Fassbender)

On the technical side it certainly succeeds. It looks and sounds great and the acting occasionally shines. Noomi Rapace does a solid job - although her swedish accent peeks it's way through here and there, and Charlize Theron is great as the seemingly cold authority figure whose humanity still well up to the surface during harsh moments. But the stand out performance is definitely by Michael Fassbender as the robot, David,  whose curiosity is oozing out of his entire being. It's also aided by the fact that David is by far the most interesting and multi-layered character in the whole movie.

In the end I felt like it could have been quite a bit better. I was hoping for a smarter movie that's more character driven with the way it was set up. But as it is, I still really liked it as a theater experience. It was explosive and entertaining. And despite it's flaws I still think it's worth a watch.

P.S. The 3D is absolutely pointless. There is not a single scene in the entire movie that warrants a 3D viewing. In fact, I often took off my 3D glasses and noticed that quite a bit of scenes didn't even have 3D in them.

The good
Exciting entertainment
The visuals
Michael Fassbender/David

The bad
Lacks answers it sets out to provide
Not as character driven as it initially seems
Some dumb and unnecessary scenes
3D

Score: (weak) 7/9

Series review: Supernatural S1

It didn't take me long to finish the first season. I basically pulled a marathon and finished it right away. Supernatural is definitely one of those easily watched shows. Kind of like a sit-com. There's no heavy drama in it that drains you mentally - despite the show being good - like "In Treatment" for example.

Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) Winchester.

As for the show itself, there's not much I can say about it that I haven't already said in my previous post. What I can say is that if you're someone who likes stuff like the movie "Constantine", then this is a series for you. It contains plenty of similar elements. Hell, they're almost exactly alike outside of the main character(s). In fact, I'm convinced the comic book series "Hellblazer" is one of the biggest influences for Supernatural.

Because I'm such a fan of the subject matter of the series and I'm giving it quite a high score.

Score: 8/9

Movie review: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (re-watch)

This is my third time re-visiting this comedic murder mystery story. I still think it's impressively written and executed with it's 4th wall breaking style and witty dialogue and narration. However, like with all mysteries, it can never be as intriguing as it was the first time around and the comedy does lose some of it's edge once you know what's coming. But the fact that I'm still so entertained by it at this point goes to show just how well told the film is.

The strongest aspect of the movie is the interaction between Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer. Their characters are already funny and interesting on their own, but it's when they're together the movie really shines. The differences between these two characters make for such hilarious banter that one can't help but to laugh out loud whereas most movies with similar kind of witty banter merely make you chuckle. The banter is however not the only hilarious aspect. There's also Robert Downey Jr.'s narration which breaks the 4th wall so often that by the end there's nothing left of it except crumbs.

Even though I keep hammering in how funny this movie is, don't go into it thinking that's a pure comedy. Because it's not. It may have plenty of comedy, but it has no shortage of action, mystery and drama. It's also very effective in those areas. It's very well rounded and it's the kind of movie I think a lot of people will love, and those who doesn't will at least enjoy it. I recommend that anyone why hasn't already seen this should go watch as soon as possible.

Despite my so far never ending praise for this film, I'm not going to give this my highest score because it somewhat lacks what my all time favorite films have - re-watch value. Granted, I do still like it despite that this is my third time watching it. But I don't love this time around. It's incredible on the first watch, but - like I said earlier - it loses a lot of it's edge after that. 

Score:  8/9

Movie review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

It's a story about British spies in the 70s where George/Smiley (Gary Oldman) tries to flush out a Russian mole among the top chain of MI6.

I really wanted to like this movie. It seemed like the kind of film I'd enjoy. Spies gathering information on one another not knowing who to trust, filled with a cast of phenomenal actors and directed by Thomas Alfredsson, who directed "Let The Right One In" which is one of my all time favorite films.

Sadly, I didn't enjoy the movie particularly much. It's all too slow and yet kind of hard to follow even though I really payed attention to it (I even re-winded it here and there because I missed a line or two of dialog), there's a major lack of emotion in the film and it has no weight behind any of it's revelations. Even the big final one concerning who's the mole. When they revealed that I simply reacted 'oh... ok'. I didn't get exactly how they found out it was him, or why he did it outside of "the west is so ugly these days".

As for the emotional aspect of the film, there were only like 5 to 10 scenes (scenes, not sequences) where a character expressed any emotion, and it was still very downplayed in half those scenes. The acting is very good though, especially by Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch. Thomas Alfredsson also manages to give us great visuals and a strong atmosphere. But that's just about all the praise I can give it.

I can understand why people like it, and I'm not saying that it's a poorly made movie, but it simply failed to entertain me. So I don't care for it.

Score: 4/9

Movie review: Hamilton: In The Interest Of The Nation

This is one of the few Swedish action films made to look like a Hollywood action flick, like "The Third Wave". In that regard it succeeds, and while it is worse than several of it's Hollywood counterparts, it's also much better than plenty of them. In the end, it places itself right in the middle of it all. Unfortunately, this means it's very forgettable. Just like "Hamilton" from 1998, starring Peter Stormare, which I honestly can't remember a thing about.

As for the film itself, it has a fairly straightforward plot; Bad guys have heavy weapons and a 'sinister' plan, hero is sent after them, some 'twists' ensue and the hero takes care of it all whilst dealing with his/her inner demons.

That's pretty much the extent of it and it's something we've all seen loads of times. So, the thing to consider is not what is done, but how well it's handled. And for the most part, it's handled nicely. 

Hamilton's personal conflict comes out of left field which is very welcome, but it's not handled any better than simply 'adequate' when it could have amounted to so much more. The antagonist is somewhat of a blank slate until the end where it's hastily touched upon that he really thinks that what he's doing is the right thing. That's something I truly appreciate in movies but is unfortunately and surprisingly not done enough despite being something so simple.

One thing that's really distracting when watching this the Swedish actors' english accents. Especially Mikael Persbrandt's. Downright terrible. He really should have worked more on it. 

I don't feel like writing much more about it. Whoever is reading this obviously gets my overall opinion this movie and why by now, so I'll end it with a summarizing line;

For a Swedish action film, it's great, for an action film overall, it's decent.

Score: 6/10