Hey. Accents.

Hey.
<--You should vote on the poll.
It's for a project.
Also, Kiwi is New Zealand.
Ok.

Balloon Diaspora

This was something else...
Seriously. Go download and play it. It only takes about 15 minutes and is extremely easy to pick up and play (Point and Click style).

Impressions later.

Trailer:

Balloon Diaspora trailer from Cardboard Computer on Vimeo.

Short Review: Toy Story 3

Wait... Is that Dreamworks Face?!

I almost cried. Almost.
Points:

• Looks incredible.
• Hits nostalgia without being cheezy.
• Will probably make you cry.
• In two parts(!)
• Spanish Buzz is awesome.
• Ken and Barbie are the best screen couple ever.
• Relatable, at least to those of use who're heading off to college next year. 
• Maybe abandoned one side plot a little too soon? I wanted to see more of the hedgehog.

I've never seen anything like this. It's the third part of a trilogy, yet it still is good, or even better than the others... It tries some things I've never seen done before in a "kid's" (sort of) film and it pulls it off with the kind of subtlety that Pixar is known for. This is amazing.

Toy Story 3 gets a :

SO. FREAKING. KEWL.

(I know most of you've probably seen this already. I was slow and just saw it, so yeah. )
I'm going to go find my Legos and Spaceships and play with them now, mmkay?

Explanation of Ratings

Yeah, I rate things a little bit off.
What these essentially mean is how cool I think whatever it is I'm reviewing is. And by Cool, I mean like how watchable or playable it is (at least to me).

For instance (In descending order):

• SO. FREAKING. COOL.- Top of the pick. This is something you should check out. Not much to complain about. 
• Example: Inception or District 9, Fallout 3 or Stranger's Wrath
• Pretty Darn Cool- Really, really good. Has some things that are kind of distracting or annoying, but still definitely worth seeing 
• Example: Tron Legacy or Pandorum, Advent Rising or Lost Planet
• Decent Flick-Just like it says. A good movie, but not really that memorable or outstanding. Worth seeing if you really want to, but otherwise, just wait for a price drop or DVD.
• Example: The Green Zone or Ninja Assassin, Army of Two or Area 51
• Ehh-Something that doesn't really click. It has some redeeming qualities, but it otherwise is a pretty shoddy piece of work. Wait for price drop or DVD if you really want to see it.
• Example: I actually have no idea. I'll tell you when I see it.
• No.-Something completely broken or bad. 
• Example: The Lovely Bones. 

Yup, so that's all the ratings in a nutshell. 

Short Review: Tron Legacy

Points:

• Jeff Bridges as the Dude who's also a god in the Grid while his son tries to rescue him.
• Looked really awesome
• Surprisingly deep storyline which held some cool surprises(well, about as deep as someone desperately trying to be deep).
• Daft Punk. Full Stop.
• Eargasms all the way through. No, seriously.

Definitely go see if you want a really awesome spectacle. Otherwise, wouldn't bad at all to see on a Weekend.

Tron Legacy gets:
Pretty Darn Cool

If this means anything to you at all, go see it.

Wut I Think: Outlander

Okay, so you can probably guess what kinds of movies I like reading by half of the posts on this blog. So it probably shouldn't be a surprise that I found myself happily enjoying the movie Outlander.

It starts out well enough, with a spaceship crash landing on (supposedly) planet Earth in Viking Times. Then, the human looking alien, Kainan, learns the ways of the local viking tribe and eventually bonds with them. BUT WAIT. Something else escaped the ship crash. It isn't human. And it looks really freaking cool. Something like Cloverfield crossed with Predator. And it's given a really cool viking sounding name, the Moorwen.

Dang, this movie keeps getting better and better.

So then the Moorwen terrorizes the Viking village and Kainan wants to kill it so he gets a Viking group together to Viking kill the beast. Vikings. That's all there is. It's not complicated, but it's still a pretty cool movie.

Starting with the story, sure it might sound kind of boring from what I've put up there, but somehow the writers managed to put in a little bit of royal troubles, rival viking clans, you know, what Vikings would worry about. It makes for a nice display of the world that Kainan has crashed into. It also makes for one of the most unique movies I've seen this year. And that's saying something. An alien crashes onto Viking lands and then helps the Vikings fight off a beast that also happens to be an alien? Giant sword made out of spaceship? Viking Mead Halls? Oh yes.

I have to give mad props to whoever designed that alien, because in motion it looks really dang cool. A lot of care was placed into making it seem like a living, breathing beast. I really liked the way it lights up whenever it's distressed or about to eat something.

The one thing I've constantly heard about this movie, is that it seems like a Sci-Fi Original Movie that you see late at night when there's nothing else to watch. Totally not true. There's something about this one that feels just right. Maybe it's that certain level of earnestness behind it. All the actors seem to be actually invested in their roles, none of the characters seemed hammered in, all seem natural enough. There's none of that acting to fill a paycheck, shoehorned jokes, or absurdity just for the sake of being weird. It's not really much of a cheezeball movie, just one that has a monster and vikings. Actually, I think the creators wanted something along the lines of Beowulf or Lord of the Rings. And in that respect, they've done pretty well for themselves. I think we need more movies like this. Something that's a little bit more than strange, but still well worth watching.

Outlander gets:
SO. FREAKING. KEWL.

Also, Vikings.

The Rebel

Why?

Because awesome. Also, flying spinning kick to the face.

THIS.

I feel like I need to post this up just on principle of awesome.

Silestone -- 'Above Everything Else' from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Wut I Think: BWARRRRM

So. Inception. Supposed mindscrew from Christopher Nolan. Holy cow. This was a good movie.
Most of you probably know the premise, but for those who haven't seen it yet, well,
Cobb is a specialist who's skilled in "extracting" secrets FROM YOUR DREAMS. Turns out, he has some troubles with the law, so he needs to do one more job to get home. Without spoiling anything, he royally screws up the job and is hired by the person he was trying to extract from for the heist of his lifetime. Except he's not heist-ing anything. He's INCEPTIONIZING. BWARRRRM.

BWARRRRM.

Inception plays out like a standard heist flick. Cobb runs around gathering buddies so that they can go lollygagging together in the world of the dream. There's some nifty stuff here. You can tell that Christopher Nolan really thought out the whole concept of a Dream Heist well. The whole first half of the movie is dedicated to introducing the concept of Inception to Adrienne, the newbie to the team (and the stand in for the audience). The second half... WELL. That's something else entirely. 

While the first half drags a little, the second half more than makes up for it. Seeing the plan finally go into action is something awesome to behold. And that isn't hyperbole. The crew is jumping deeper and deeper into dream levels, making time move slower and slower in the levels above. What that means is that while everything at the current dream level moves at real time, the levels above it are moving a snails pace. Seeing the contrast between super slo-mo footage of a van driving backwards off a bridge and Cobb and Co blowing up a snow base made my jaw drop. 

Speaking of really pretty visuals, this film has it all. Everything looks incredibly smooth, even when they're not in the dream world. It's incredible i can't describe oh man. Nolan really knows how to shoot a film. And about the shooting... This movie has some of the cleanest looking action scenes I've seen over the last year. You can tell who's shooting at who, yet still feel the impact of each shot well.

The sound. Oh man. THE SOUND. IT'S LIKE AN AURAL COOKIE. The score is pretty cool too. Because it's Hans Zimmer. When you go with big sequences, Hans Zimmer never fails at giving the epic feel. And there's a neat little easter egg hidden in the music itself.

Ok. So yeah, this is an awesome movie. Like, totally Jawesome. Go see it. 

Inception Gets:

SO. FREAKING. KEWL.

Also:

Movie Review Poll Winner!

INCEPTION.
Expect the BWARRRRRRRRM by next week. If it's not there by then, post angry comments.
Edit: POLL'S CLOSED.