Reaction to Fiction - Twilight series

Welcome to a new column called Reaction to Fiction. In this I discuss the merits of a franchise and its multi-media effects and how it impacts society at large.

Twilight


so a few things. I have read the first book(trash). I can say the movies are getting progressively better at telling these stories. There are still the obvious fundamental problems such as this being a story of necrophilia, Bestiality and Pedophilia, and abusive male figures. I do intend to see and review Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. I am not planning on reading the books but I have read the wikipedia articles and learned their plots, themes, and messages. I am also am a Feminist and equal rights activist. Thus many flaws beyond the writing come jumping out at me.

And you can't blame the vampire craze on Twilight since all of this happened in the 90's with the Anne Rice novels. It's just now with the internet people realize they are en masse.

I will point out that just because something isn't exceptionally written can still be enjoyable. Harry Potter for example. It has it's issues certainly, but it is still a fun coming of age adventure that captured the hearts and minds of a lot of people. Twilight isn't fun. Twilight is a chance for a generic girl to identify with a generic tale that basically sums up as a disney movie ala Cinderella. Seriously let's look at the two plots. Girl lives a life where she isn't pleased with her conditions. Girl finds man who is everything she isn't and from a different way of life. They fall in love without knowing anything about each other and are then abruptly torn apart. The boy then eventually realizes he must be with this girl and goes out to find her and marry her. The reason Twilight is more popular is that it aims its age target a little higher. It takes it to the PG-13 level and introduces teenage problems like Sex and the dream of Marriage(because obviously teenagers are stupid to get married but like to think of it anyways). So why does Cinderella work where Twilight doesn't? Because Cinderella's plights are real. She isn't worried about being uncool in school, the center of attention, or bored. She is, for all intents and purposes a slave. So the need to escape that life is a necessity. The story works further because of its time period. The story is from a pre-women's rights era. Therefore women didn't often have a lot of power to break from their own bondage. And that's not to say they weren't capable of the power, simply that they were systematically denied the rights and the chance to be equals. This is still true today, but it is much more subtle. You can also say similar things with Africans that were actually slaves. But we are here to talk about Twilight. But to complete the obvious parallels I need to point out that Vampirism is used as a metaphor for marriage/sex in the Twilight universe.


These books are clearly the signs of women in abusive relationships surrendering to gender expectations and being passive and incompetent. Meyer's work is doing more harm than good. She is glorifying being subservient and if I hadn't seen her speak I would assume she is just a pen name for some misogynist. Actually Meyer is a misogynist. She has no respect for women nor their ability to make rational decisions. Meyer offers up Bela three options. The first is the stalker that she stalks back. He is mysterious and abusive using phrases like "Get in the Car" and mysteriously being at the same place she is when she is in trouble. Meyer tries to distract you with the fact that He is stalking her by the fact that he saves her. The reality is that she doesn't show us most of the scenes where he is there just watching her and not saving her. And how creepy this is. More so, the one time she does we instead see Bela embrace him for doing so. Then in door number two we have her other would be protector, Jacob. Jacob and Bela's relationship is actually built up. We start by finding out that he is her childhood friend and he slowly becomes a good friend to her. Jacob's previously subtle attraction to Bela slowly grows more obvious to the audience(and possibly to Jacob too, but that' level of detail to a supporting character seems outside of Meyer's level of skill). Jacob is presented as the good guy. The safe bet. The non-dangerous one. That is until he becomes a werewolf. It is here that we begin to see that Bela is only attracted to bad boys because it isn't until this point that she ever truly considers embracing Jacob. And lastly there is the third option where she chooses neither of them. Oh wait, Meyer never presents this option. Meyer has the issue where she thinks that the character she set Bela out to be in love with is the character she should be in love with. It doesn't work out that way. In every way Meyer has set up Jacob to be the healthy relationship in her world and yet she ultimately treats him like dirt and makes him a pedophile. Meyer puts Bela through nothing but unhealthy relationships. Bela is constantly being treated like she has no personality and no ability to make decisions and thus they are always made for her by male figures in her life such as Her Father, Edward, Edwards "father", Jacob, and numerous others. Logically Bela would want to marry her creepy stalker right? Right? Okay so yeah, it doesn't make sense at all. Even in the context of the story it doesn't make any sense at all. Bela is trapped in a cycle of abuse and it is treated like a positive thing. Most of all, I feel bad for Meyer's husband. What must he be like if this is what Meyer thinks all relationships with men are like.

So here is where this all is a huge problem because this isn't the first novels to be like this. Harlequin novels do this all the time. So why is this a problem? It is because it IS so popular. By being a fan of this series you are saying you are a fan of abusive relationships and that's what you aspire to. You basically are telling everyone that you wish to NOT be in a healthy relationship. That you WANT guys to stalk you and treat you like dirt and be disrespectful. So long as they love you. Because that is what is happening in these books. It is the rationalization that it is okay to be in an abusive relationship because he loves you. Now I of course have been dodging the words Physically and Mentally in conjunction with abuse. That is because both are equally wrong. And they both leave scars. And because both are apt. All of the symptoms, all of the actions of an abusive relationship are the same. It is all a matter of where you are being hurt. And you wouldn't stay in a relationship like that would you? I hope not.

When I hear the phrase "I want an Edward" I cringe because it is like saying "I want a stalker that I can be in an abusive relationship with". Oh and the reason he sparkles is to make it even more obvious that he isn't a person, but a toy to be used. There is a phrase when it comes to a capitalistic society which is you pay with your wallet. So the more you pay to see and read these stories the more you tell the money counters, this works, we should make more of this. But it gets worse. You also tell the world this is what you believe. This is how you see things to be. It may not be true, but its what you desire and consider your idealistic view. And it is really bad. People wonder, "Why do crappy movies keep getting made and make money?" It is because you don't pay attention to critics and instead want to see it and then are surprised when it isn't good despite the critics telling you otherwise. The more you embrace popular items the more you try and homogenize what comes out in the future. This is because the moneycounters want to make more money and know that you will go see something that looks familiar than you are to try something new. You'll notice that until the movies came out, most of the books never got passed a second printing. Now they are at their umpteenth printing and the series is like a raging fire. However, the movies are their own beast. With each film, the story telling is getting better. They are getting better performances out of actors, better directing, they are paying attention to what needs to be cut and what deserves more attention. They know the source material sucks so they are making it better. Now that is not to say they are making good movies, but for example Eclipse is watchable and coherent. If your girlfriend takes you to it, it won't kill you. It is better than Last Airbender and last years Transformers 2. That isn't saying much, but it is something.


And before I give you my conclusion I just want to say that Bella as she is written is a thinly veiled allusion to Bela Lugosi, the original actor who portrayed Dracula in the original black and white movie Dracula.

I want to use Buffy the vampire slayer as an example of why Twilight is so bad. Buffy has a similar plot. Human girl falls in love with Vampire boy. But she eventually says something really important which is a cookie metaphor. she calls her self cookie dough, that she isn't ready to be done baking yet. And thus she needs to learn to be a person more before she can make a decision about who she should or shouldn't be with. Buffy shows Maturity to make rational, adult decisions. Something Bela like never could.


So, I want you to think about what you believe, what you want people to think of you when you give your support to that franchise. Is this really how you think of yourself? Is your self esteem really that low? Because I guarantee you that Freddy Kruger is better boyfriend material than Edward Cullen.


And then Buffy staked Edward the end.

He should have stayed in that ball of ice - a review of The Last Airbender

So quick summation of the movie's plot: The world is based of four elements and four nations(Fire, Earth, Water Air) and if you are a bender you can manipulate that element. There is this kid, named Ang(pronounced in this movie as Ong like in Ong Bak) and there is this prophecy about how this kid is the one kid in all of the nations that will balance the elements and use all four at once. So the kid freaks and runs away. He gets frozen in a block of ice and a hundred years pass. Captain America style, he is woken up from the ice by a Water Bender and her brother. The three then have to go on a quest to protect the world and stuff. And of course Ang never learned how to use the other elements so he now needs to do that so he can become the Avatar(the one who can bend all of the elements). This is actually a pretty good premise and is mired by its poor execution here. And as a note, I've never seen the show.


Main review:

Underwhelming. That is how I describe this movie. It is slow and every action sequence is dull. There is never any tension in this movie and I am never once under the belief that ANY character is in danger, be them friend or foe. Part of this makes sense. We have a team of goody-goodys fighting an evil empire. The goody-goodys should ever put their enemies in peril, just stop them. But the villains are never threatening. Other than something that happened in the past(that hundred year period) and even that could be chocked up to the previous Lord since he is obviously not 100+ years old. There is one time a character dies and it is a sacrifice but it isn't to hurt the bad guys or even protect the good guys. I won't spoil what it is, but its treated like a plot device and not an emotional moment. Worse is that the thing is used to stop isn't fully explored and instead just happens and then is gone. The one really cool moment and they breeze over it. And even worse is that this sacrifice isn't earned. There's no pathos to it, I never cared nor do I now care. There isn't a moment of mourning and the movie fails hard because of this. It is a result of characters that are wooden and flat.

I don't ever once in this movie believe the characters. I am always aware these are people being written because nothing they say sounds real. It sounds forced like they have to say this to get the plot to go where it needs to. And in some respects(so I'm told) the story is true to its origin(just condensed) but in many ways including numerous characters they've made huge changes. None of the characters show growth. They are, for the most part, exactly the same as they were when we first meet them. They don't learn lessons, they don't experience emotion or real hardships, things just happen and they are uninteresting when they do. These are characters that are one dimensional. And I am being generous with that description because with that because there is little to no development for these characters. They sort of have back stories, but the movie is in such a hurry to keep under its 95 minute run time that nothing can sit and happen. This was a quest movie. It needed to be two to three hours long. They needed to spend more time on action and needed to explain things and show more impact in the universe so that when a character bends and I am supposed to think this is really cool(so as to take the place of any actual action) I can buy into this lie that it is action and not just people staring.

Ultimately I wanted to go home and take a nap. And I fell asleep for about five minutes before my companion who was a fan of the show (but not this movie) woke me up because I was snoring. I kept hoping this film would pick up the pace and let the journey happen but it never did. It skipped over some obviously meaty portions. The movie is disjointed jumping from one episode to the next without showing the emotional impact of the adventure or letting it be obvious the wear the journey was having. I really wanted to care about the main character but the movie refused to let me, it felt like it was holding secrets back so that they could use them in the next movies but it is too much work and I don't care about him. None of the characters are treated well. The brother has a romance subplot for about ten minutes but it ends before you can embrace it. And that's his only subplot or character moment. The one main character who can't bend gets no development, shows no resentment for being so left out, no emotions at all. The movie falls apart because the only character with any back story and emotion is Prince (Danny) Zucko. Danny was exiled and now has to find the avatar to be able to be unexiled. Cool. They even have a flashback that explains his scaring and his exiling. This is awesome. The kid playing him over acts and chews scenery sometimes, but he is still the most developed character in the movie. There is a section in the middle after Ang is captured one of the times, and his actions seem to counteract his goals which is a pitfall of the movie because they never show the emotion for this to be believable. Lastly the girls in this movie are left under the heels of the men and this movie clearly doesn't know what to do with them other than bat eyelashes and run away. Its tasteless and despicable. Then there are the villians. They are all obviously mustache twirling I want to rule the world types and they are pretty stock and flat. There isn't reasoning behind their goals. There is never anything original about this movie except until we get the end and there is this really menecing little girl which was a nice moment, but an ending does not make a bad movie anything else. It is a clearly M Night type of ending. Even in Avatar. Logic and order do not exist in this world. Only pain and misery for the audience who have to sit through it so bored.

The effects in this movie are boring and uninspired. The water and fire often do look real but because of the manipulation going on it is obvious that they are CGI. They do their best, but it isn't enough to make me believe. This would be Avatar is not James Cameron's Avatar's special effects. The worst bit is the 3-D is dull and devoid of life. In fact, in quite a few scenes I took the glasses off because they didn't do anything. The film wanted to something more but the effects don't serve a purpose when it comes to the 3-D. And lastly M. Night's role in this movie. He directed, written and produced. And he tells you this twice. At the end His name is the one there. it is to remind you who to blame. He wrote this. The dialogue his stilted dialogue. In previous movies he could mask bad dialogue with great actors. And even then it came out strange, but better than nothing. His directing isn't terrible, but his structuring is. This movie doesn't even have The Happening's level of absurdity where I could rationalize it as intentional B-movie status. This film is just poor.

Overall this film is pretty underwhelming experience. I couldn't recommend it to anyone. That said it isn't a total failure. Certain characters like The Prince and his Uncle who is more of a father to him than his father are both interesting. some of the effects are cool and enjoyable. some of the pacing is just right. But in the context of the hour and a half length everything feels like filler. And again, the outline of the plot was strong. The film feels rushed and like it is a failed translation from one medium to another. and I kept thing "Man, this would make a great TV show."

Overall grade: D-

Letting Go of the Past and moving to the future - a Toy Story 3 reveiw

WARNING SPOILERS
WARNING
WARNING


Okay, with the warning out of the way. Let us start with the easy bit. What did I think? I loved it. but I recently talked to someone who didn't and it got me to thinking how do I explain, qualify my experience.

What works: The characterization. Woody has a fairly simple character arc. But it is done and explained simple enough for kids to understand, and complex enough that adults will look and find it genuine and believable. There is then the Jesse and Buzz Lightyear who have an interwoven storyarc. They have a very subtle love story and it works well for what takes place. The more overt story is that Buzz is brainwashed about halfway(maybe sooner) and in a very mechanical means. This is solved just as mechanically but with comedical side effects. Buzz takes some emotional turns and it is quite effective. This is one of the weak points where Jesse doesn't get a strong story arc here. Her's is much more downplayed which is strange because it isn't even as if this movie is being misogynistic. I point next to Ken and Barbie's story which is quite fun. It takes two very different characters who are surfacely shallow but as you get closer you see that both have secret undersides and aren't as shallow as they first appear. Barbie in particular is played as a strong willed female type. Lots-o-Hug Bear and the Baby also get developed as new characters and emotionally gripping backstories.

Next up is theme. This movies biggest theme is letting go and moving onto to new things. But it says it in a way that kids and adults can both understand and enjoy the message. It pitches that new areas of life are both scary and wondrous and that as you move on you don't have to forget about the past. It is filled with hope and treats change as a new adventure to learn but that ultimately it isn't as scary as they might be. And this is a lesson that both the toys and Andy will learn.

The voice acting work is fantastic here. All of the actors really show some depth, and even cameos like Timothy Dalton managed to show off their skills here.

This is of course a Pixar movie, and so writing, directing, and visuals are all top notch. There is some paticularly amazing work visually in the opening sequence and the short film that preceeds our story.

Without a doubt this film is strong, perhaps the strongest of the year(but that remains to be seen). I would like the world to enjoy this film.

It's not just the letter of the team, its the grade too - A review of A-Team 2010

Knockdown dragout that reminds us why movies like Diehard are classics.
I would consider this nowhere near as good as Diehard of course, but it does fall into the same category of great Action/Comedy. The movie is Funny and Actiony. Skip some of the more recent action movies, like Knight and Day and watch A-Team, it is worth your time.

The movie starts with Liam Neeson proving that he is really a bad ass. The movie proceeds to continue and instead of leaving it there, it slowly introduces us to the formation of the team AND gives us one of the most interesting action segments of the movie. They show us Hannibal(Liam's character), B.A., Face, and Murdock. Having never seen the television series on which it is based, I felt that I was sufficiently introduces to these characters in the first 10 minutes than I was to any of the characters in a number of recent releases. There are some very Qui Gon Jinn moments for Hannibal but ultimately his character is almost posed as the main character being the first character we are introduced to and being the team leader. You then have B.A. who is shown to be a former thug but wants to reform from his old lifestyle. They then collide and are both shown to be Army Rangers. This is a recurring plot point in this intro that brings them together. They go off to rescue Face who has gotten himself caught during an espionage mission gone awry because of his standard of wooing women everywhere. Lastly after rescuing Face, we meet Murdock, the ace pilot. He acts quite crazy and has the weakest of the introductions until you get him in a helicopter and right after you see him pull a move off that has the audience ask themselves "Can you do that with a helicopter?" you hear him proclaim "did you see that? I didn't even know I could do that." and it is at this point you start to see how this team is pulling together.

That's roughly the first five minutes. A big long action sequence. But the movie tells you what you are watching and this allows you to prepare for it. It never pretends to be something it is not, and on occasion will prove itself smarter than you. The main plot deals with the intro of the series(They were betrayed for a crime they didn't commit) and the plot sounds similar to the plot of the losers. But nevermind that since I don't usually talk about plot. The additional action sequences aren't nearly as thrilling as the first, but they do keep you entertained, and the finale is quite fun. If ever there was a problem with them it is that they don't throw you nearly enough curve balls. There is one paticular action sequence where you get to hear the line "They are trying to Fly the tank." and it doesn't come across as corny. That's impressive.

this movie has one major flaw, and that is that I am expected to take Jessica Biel seriously throughout. She has very little acting ability and while it isn't necessary in a film like this to have a lot, enough to convince me you are the role is required. She never does. And for that movie, you fail. More so in a 30 second encounter between Face and some random French reporter, you get a more believable and consistent relationship than you do between Face and Biel in the entire movie. There is also a problem where they have an emotional court scene and a funeral intercut and the editing removes the impact of both.

In the middle of good and bad you have Patrick Wilson(Niteowl in Watchmen) who plays his role deliciously chewing up the scenery. He is of course chewing the scenery so there is some bad, but it is entertaining enough to be consider a good part of the movie.

The movie devotes a large amount of its running time to setting things up and having them work out just right, or if not JUST right, a little to the left. In fact, a large problem the movie has is that everything often feels like it works a little too well and isn't nearly spontaneous enough. But it does feel like it is doing a good job updating the story of these characters(as I have been educated by wikipedia about) for the year 2010.
All in all, I think the film does a great job of being an enjoyable film experience and will polarize people far less than most other adaptations.
That and you get an awesome TKO from B.A. towards the end that is quite the enjoyable cinematic experience.
Overall, if I had to rate this movie, I'd give it an A-.

This movie is as bad as its titles pun - Knight And Day

Knight. And. Day. Knight and Day. KnightandDay. Seriously. Seriously? Seriously.
Studio, who thought this was a good idea? What person went Oh! we should change the title and a (so I'm told) great script into a meh script and a terrible title. The films original title was Wichita, an early locale of the film.

Okay so onto the movie itself. Let us start with what works shall we? Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise Tom Cruise. He is brilliant in this. This is partially the script, but the stuff that is clearly Cruise is good. It works. It's Tom on his way to a new point in his career.

So this movie is simple, its Tom Cruise playing Ethan Hunt, but crazy,except not. Or is he?! No he's not. the movie spends maybe five minutes trying to convince you this might be the case and then people start shooting at him and your like oh, he's not just a crazy guy going on the grid. Later you find out the film is Ethan Hunt is trying to protect this kid and this battery he made(yep, you read that right), but really the plot is Ethan Hunt and Cameron Diaz jet setting, he occasionally drugs her and changes her clothes while such in what might have been almost implied rape. The film works best when it doesn't take itself seriously, which is why it falls apart in the third act. and the second half of the first act. and some of the action sequences. You see there are really funny and smart lines like when Tom is taking Cameron out of a restaurant and trying to get anyone hurt so he holds her hostage. Yeah I know, convolution is the name of the game here. But just as he leaves he says something to the effect of "No body move, or I shoot myself then her!". And it is this hilarious moment. There is almost a moment in that same scene involving Riley Finn(or whatever the actor who played him on Buffy's name is) giving a thumbs up that is Awesome. Now onto why this movie fails horribly. It is clearly a Tom Cruise vehicle. The movie should have been about him. But it isn't. It is about Cameron Diaz's whiny character. She is a stupid blonde who we are supposed to believe builds cars(Ha!) from the opening sequence where she brings car parts in her carry on(yeah we totally believe you can bring large pieces of metal in a suitcase that big as a carry-on. Totally.) but it never does anything to make us BELIEVE this to be true. We see Cameron Diaz being this Damsel and then about 3/4 the way through the movie is like and now she thinks shes a bad ass(emphasis on thinks and the movie makes fun of her for it). But it all falls flat. And it doesn't ring true for the character and the change is so abrupt that he don't see the change. The next issue is that in the aforementioned drugging, often it is done durring what would have been the cool part of the action sequences but the writer couldn't think of anyway to keep the scenes going so he just ended them. Which is good, but instead of ending the scenes, he cuts you out of them with a deus Ex Machina. This should have been an amazing action/comedy. But because it skips the action scenes, it can't be an action movie. Because only half of the comedy works it doesn't stand up as a comedy. Because it isn't a romance movie and all the romance scenes seem more forced than Anakin and Padme, it doesn't work. This movie does not know what it wants to be and instead falls apart. There are some good things going on in it, and if you want to see Tom Cruise being awesome check it out.
But ultimately the point is that the film has a terrible ending(except one moment where you can see that there WAS something smart to this at some point.) The movie is polarizing. Trying to be action/comedy/romance. But at the same time trying to be a parody. SO I can't in good conscious give this movie more than a C+.

Oh and you may be wondering why I keep repeating things three times. Well it is because in film there is a rule of three for information. You hint, you show, you explain. This film just hits you with the same crappy jokes three times. And the joke wasn't even funny to begin with.

Ranking the Mosnters of Monsterpocalypse Intro

Here are the Destroyers:



T1:
Ultra Xaxor
Mega Mantacon
Ultra Mantacon
T2:
Mega Vorgax
ultra Gorghadra
Mega Gorghadra
Mega Mucustos
T3:
Ultra Mucustos
Ultra Vorgax
Ultra Rogzor

T4:
Mega Xaxor
Mega Rogzor
Ultra Zorog
Mega Zorog


Not included at the time of post "BiJ"

How a Destroyer player chooses his force - a monsterpocalypse article

How a Destroyer player chooses his force - a monsterpocalypse article


This article may feel redundant for some of you. For others of you it will blow your mind at how simple this is to do.


First off, Pick your monster. I am going to show to separate line ups using similar(in my mind) styles of play.**

Xaxor/Ultra Xaxor and Mantacon/Mega Mantacon


Let us start with what my choice of units would be for each and then I will explain why and how to go about choosing the units.

Mantacon:

Chomper x3
Explodohawk x3
Destructomite x3
Crawler x2
Spy Fly x4



Xaxor:

Explodohawk x4
Explodhawk Shadow x1***
Destructomite x3
Crawler x3
Explodmite x3

As you can see, the two lists focus on similar themes, now lets explain what went into these numbers.

Mantacon: the Whys...
With Mega Mantacon, I always, Always, always want to include chompers. They are your easy access to play mistake heaven. now this can be either poor positioning, poor dice rolls, or anything but if they are siting next to a chomper, you move next to the chomper with lighting attack and feeding frenzy do 4 points of damage(and then run away with Hit and Run). Also chompers grant energy cycle which allows you to conserve dice, which in the mega form is needed since you'll be using A-dice to snacrafice*.

The spy flys are of course there because with swarm, even shooty-less swarm, they are the cheapest way to secure a power base. My motto with mantacon is dice conservation. Taking repeated monster turns is the name of the game here.

The remaining units are support. Explodohawks are the universal cheese machine. With a better brawl stat than some monsters, Explodohawks are fantastic at scaring your opponent into thinking twice about moving near one without killing it. They are an easy diversion.

Crawlers and destructomites serve the same purpose. They are their to drop your opponents defense down as low as you can get it. While an obvious strategy for any monster, with lightning attack and dice conservation you are looking at reducing the number of dice you need to throw on turn one, to perform the combo again on turn two.

The synergy here is to get Mantacon to do maximum damage each turn. If necessary use explodohawks for damage.



Xaxor:

This should be pretty obvious if you read the article last week.
Explodohawks are for doing damage. Charge gives them an extra boost dice. therefore the plan is to charge and hit the enemy monster whenever possible.

This also synergizes with Xaxor who is a ranged/power fighter.
Xaxor doesn't have access to the free movement from the Spy fly so using it becomes less optimal.
Xaxor then uses crawlers and Destructomites to secure buildings to build up power, and weaken anyone who dares try to get close. Secondary, is that you can then try and set it up so that you throw your opponent near your power base once it is no longer optimal to gain p-die, and thus giving you a late game home field advantage.
The explodomites use a combination of the two strategies. They work to build the power base, but also threaten(in a team capacity) to hit the enemy monster that gets too close.


So the idea behind building a good force is synergy. I locate key abilities that I feel are best supported by units. So on Xaxor I pinpointed the blue charge ability and used that to my advantage. With mantacon I focused on Lightning Attack. The idea, I find, is that if you pick an Alpha/Hyper form pair that synergizes, you are more likely to synergize with your units.
And with so many abilities that monsters gain or lose when changing hyper forms, you need to focus on the abilities that remain constant when you are building a list.
overall I say this should be your goal. When building a unit force, they need to emphasize your monsters specialties. The unit, and the alpha, and the hyper should all synergize together.


Building choices are harder. Often this will come down to what works best with what you have access to. My building suggestions are going to be slightly less.

First off, since you are a destroyer, you will often want to destroy buildings. Therefore their abilities are less important. There are however a few key abilities to focus in on and make sure to have access to.


Superstructure- gives extra power die for destroyers destroying it.

Insurance: gaining extra power dice for the destruction of buildings is a great advantage.

Spire/blazing inferno/chemical spill: You deal extra damage.

The Imperial State building. This is a high defense, 3 P-die power up building. And it catches fire.

High Occupancy: Avoid fielding buildings with this ability because the number of nature monsters is on the rise, and Destroyers have none.

Shuffle: this is THE ability that can make or break a second turn of unit/monster because of the extra die.

*a term coined by a fellow player who seems focused on food and sheep puns, I.E. Bleep Back on a giant Sheep monster.
**note, If their is clamor for it, I shall also post on the other 16(1 ultra and hyper for each of the 9 monsters).
*** The one random extra ShadowHawk is for when you need to lure an opponent closer to a certain spot on the map, lest he take damage.

The 'Hawk Rush - a monsterpocalypse strategy

Destroyer Strategy...


The 'Hawk Rush

This one is fairly straight forward and relies on your monster having an alternate way to gain power dice. For the purposes of this topic I am going to focus on the currently released monsters(so no BiJ).
The basic idea is to not secure a powerbase and instead focus on using explodohawks to attack the enemy monster.



Vorgax: While I disagree with using this strategy with the morpher, but for that quick jab, you can set up your morphers to help set up a first turn power base.
I am not going to talk about them though because my morpher strategies are completely different.


Xaxor: This is what I am talking about, specifically that he has super stomp. Quick easy way to gain some power dice.

Manatcon: No easy way other than punching buildings to gain P-Dice. Thus, despite being my favorite destroyer, I will not use him in this discussion.

Rogzor: Disintegrate lets him do the same thing as mantacon, but for the same reason I won't talk about them individually, but instead at the end of the article I will talk about that idea.


Mucustos: Just punches buildings.

Zorog: Same.

Gorghadra: Super Rampage. Huzzah! the time of British oppression is over!


To summarize I will be talking about Gorghadra and Xaxor.


The Strategy: the way this plan works is to be using your unit turn to send explodohawks at your opponents monster.
The best plan is that turn one, spawn and move 5 hawks. Then on your second unit turn, respawn any explodohawks that were destroyed, move any towards the monster, and use remaining dice to spawn support units I.E. Crawlers, Destructomite, Chompers, Spy Fly(if you are a Swarm),Razor Beetle.

What you do if you have a 'hawk in range is send that hawk straight at their monster and use six A-die. Use six A-dice. Six. Six Six Six. The number of the beast. Six. Why? Even if you have their defense at 4 you could still be looking at average rolls(.5 + .5 + .5 + .5+ .5 +.5 + .67 + .67 +.67+(,67 if you are play Xaxor)**.
You then use the remaining three A-die anyway you can. You really should use them because with this strategy unless you really have a good idea for dealing that second turn of damage, you should take a monster turn instead of a second unit turn.

The monster portion: Turn one, gain P-dice via alternative means. Turn 2: deal ranged damage. Turn 3: Deal super damage.

Back up unit plan: this is for those pesky 7 defense monsters. If you can't do consistently average rolls to hit their defense which average is likely to be around 4-5 strikes, I suggest wrecking their power base. Aim for the buildings they build up. Hit their power nodes. and worse case scenario, just sit a unit next to their base on your unit turn before their monster turn.


Monster specifics: This strategy works best with Xaxor because of Charge, low hyper cost for easy flexing and the awesome 5/7, 7/5 health defense switch.

Why I disagree with monsters that can just punch a building with this plan? Because they can at most gain 5 P-Die from it. A good super stomp should net you 6-10 P-die. A good Super rampage, 6-10.
That is why.

Overall:

You may find it strange that this plan focuses mainly on unit damage, this is because monsters can reliably do damage. They have access to power dice, they have abilities that grant extra damage, ect. ect.. What you really need to do is get those extra bumps so that assuming you are evenly matched with your opponent, you are getting that small extra 1 damage to take a lead.
I say this because most games I have played(sans one or two players) and most games I have seen, players tend to be evenly matched.

Also, a lot of these strategies are fairly basic and apply for many scenarios. You would be surprised how different two areas can be. I traveled 100 miles within the same state and found in one area power base denial was a completely casual strategy, and in the other it was unheard of and won me many a early tournaments.




If you enjoyed this article, have other opinions, or want to yell at me and say this will never work(it does as I will often use this tactic when playing as Xaxor) let me know!.

hopefully next week I will have a different tactica for the masses.

**An A-die has a .5 chance of failure, and a B-die has a .33333333333--- chance of failure.

Been awhile...

Okay so technically ...its been like 6 months for me since I've updated.
I just wasn't in the mood to review or comment on anything, And I haven't really had the time either. In the interim I have written 5 short stories, 1.5 plays(by the end of the day it'll be 2 full plays of 75ish plays) and I've played a lot of miniatures.

Now Being this geekcore, I'm going to find myself heading back to my geeky roots and also hold up this blog some more.

First off, my rule of no personal BS will continue. That can all be found on my facebook and twitter and Gmail statuses.
Instead part of what will go here is my new Mini's stuff. I'm working on some 40k conversions(in theory), very slowly building and painting a Retribution army, and will soon be getting some new Monpoc figures.
What does this mean for you?
Well barring me not having any days off this coming future(doubtful), I am going to be posting comments and pictures of a lot of this stuff.




Oh and thats nids for 40k...

The top 11 songs of My Time

Top 11 songs...Of my time...


11. Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World
10.By my side by 3 Doors Down
9.Everlong by Foo fighters
8.Mad World by Gary Jules
7.The Unforgiven by Metalica
6.For Those About to Rock, (We Salute you) by ac/dc
5.Sympathy for the Devil by Rolling stones
4. Everything by Lifehouse
4. Tyrant by one republic(tie)
3.Duel of Fates by John Williams
2.Bittersweet by Apocolyptica
1. Polaris by Jimmy Eat World

its 2010...

and Updates and stuff will come, eventually.
Everything I had previously planned, forget it.
I will hopefully get something in here in march,
but not to leave anyone that reads this with a sign, oh i'm a dumb ass feeling.
I am here to tell you Read Fables. It is an amazing series by Bill Willingham and it will knock your socks off. Also the first trade is like 10 bucks and it alone is worth that price, but trust me. Read the first volume. You will likely find yourself soon reading the entire series, and for good reason.

Oh and sometime hopefully this weekend, I'll get the SmackJeeves page updated and there will be the entire first 22 pages of the comic put up. I don't know when I'll write and craft most of chapter two(I have some of it done) but it'll happen. And if I get good ideas, chapters 3,4,5,6 will also be made.



-Max

The top 11 tv shows that Dawned in the last decade

The top 11 tv shows that dawned in the last decade

Honorable(but not qualifying)Mention: Doctor Who(2005), technicly this is a continuation of the old series and therefore is very very old.

11. Dead Like Me
10.Torchwood
9.Dexter
8.Dollhouse
7.Supernatural
6. (Buffy the VAmpire slayer) The O.C.
Okay so Buffy would go here(pushing all of the above up a rank each, but it started in 1997 not in the new millennium and thus does not qualify. Barely.
5. Gilmore Girls
4.Angel
EDIT: It was pointed out that this show was released in 1999 not 2000, and therefore ineligible. So this spot is now for number 11, with everything else going up a rank, and the show is Jericho
3. Wonderfalls
2. Firefly
1. Pushing Daisies (Tear)

Other top ranks include
Battlestar Galactica
How I met your Mother
Chuck
Reaper
Lost
Prison Break
House
Arrested Development

The Boringist week of the year:2009

So because the last week of the year(christmas to new years day) is the slowest for most folks I'm going to set up my own mini film festival.
Every film shall be already released, with a few opitional Theatrical Releases. Your goal should be a film a day with at least two on New years eve and total of 9.
My personal list is more ambitious, I'm watching something like 17 movies.


V for Vendetta
The Departed
Up
Sunshine Cleaning
Corpse Bride
Terminator Salvation
The Fall
The Orphanage
2001 a space Odysey
Gladiator
District 9
Dirty Harry
Magnum Force
The Enforcer
Sudden impact
The Dead Pool


Optional Theatrical Films:
Sherlock Holmes
Up in the air

Top 11 modern D.C. Superheroes

Top 11 modern D.C. Superheroes
Same rules as the marvel, including having a list for villains.




11. Indigo 1
10.Blue Lantern Brother Warth
8.(tie)Flamebird(Thara)
8. (tie)Nightwing(Chris Kent)
7. Booster Gold
6. The Question(Renee Montoya)
5. Green Arrow
3.(tie) Batman(Dick Greyson)
3.(tie) Robin (Damien Wayne)
2. Green Lantern(Hal Jordan)
1. Batwoman

Update(or lack there of)

Okay so I just missed last sat. No biggie. Comic is the next post I'm doing and then I'm programing the rest of the month.
Reviews should resume in January. I should have a handful of things to at least talk about, if not review.
Friday night(Saturday morning) I'll have a review for Avatar. Saturday I'll have a review for whatever movie I see then. And then the week of New Years I shall have something for Sherlock Holmes.

Dollhouse has been canceled.

But I'm trying to save it.
If you haven't already, join the Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=199365313412&ref=search&sid=299000555.3833548488..1

Beyond that I'll keep you updated as per plan.

Top 11 modern Marvel superheroes(based upon their current Marvel titles)

Top 11 modern Marvel superheroes(based upon their current Marvel titles)


So in a way this is my top 11 Marvel books on shelves but it kind of is not.
This top 11 will have a mate for villains.

11. Old Man Logan

10. Daredevil

9. Luke Cage

8.DeadPool(Wade Wilson)

7. Black Bolt

6. Nova Prime(Richard Rider)

5. Captain America(II)(Bucky Barnes)

4. Tony Stark

2. James Madrox / Layla Miller

1. Ultimate spider-man(peter Parker)

An explanation

So first off, I just traveled backwards in time...
So I'm going to be using Novemeber as a bit of catch up, periodically(as I stated earlier) I will be revisted these 11ish reviews and filling them in this month at my leisure. You won't see the full 30 Days of Night(two part) review until thanksgiving, I'll write the review when I'm home for the weekend(I don't own a copy of the movie anymore so I have not been able to review that. Likely though, a few such as Godfather on the list of backups will be very short, and the Serenity review may never appear. That is contingent upon real life circumstances where I am showing a friend of mine the series and we actually finish the series and watch the movie.

Hopefully, tomorrow night I'll be able to get a few reviews out of the way and have some lined up for you guys during the week.
So here's a few things I hope to be able to write reviews for during November...
Tru Calling the complete series dvd: I just bought this off amazon for really cheap, and I might even hang on to it as a gift for christmas, but should I fail to hold back I will be watching it and getting through that series giving you guys a look at the box set.

Persepolis

The Filth

EDIT: Something I forgot to mention, you may not see updates consistently. Not that you have in the past but other than what I've said in this update and the one from a week ago, there is a chance I won't be able to write up anything else of paticular worth unless the day comes up.
But look to see hopefully at least one thing a week.

30 Days of Night

A Review of the COMIC...And the Film...Coming Soon.

Drag Me to Hell: The Full Review

Review goes here
Wish Number two:


My review of Drag Me To Hell.


This is the first real and true horror movie in years. It is not the torture porn we've seen recently, it's not Cloverfield in that it has a giant monster. This is a movie with interesting characters, an only slightly larger than life villain, and most of all likable characters. That is one of the most important aspects of this movie. You do not want the Hero to die. This isn't a film where you like the Villain more than any one else.
Christine is a protagonist that you genuinely feel bad for and can(for most of them) understand her decisions. As you watch her go through the motions in during the first ten minutes or so, the film really starts to push her up a tree, and worse than the old adage, it starts to try and cut the tree down to get her out of it. And then she falls in a hole and is trying to climb her way out but the hole just gets worse to bear.
We watch as things seem like they might be okay, but then they get worse than they were before. It almost always feels like there is something trying to stop Christine. But unlike in a drama, in this horror film there actually is something trying to stop her. This isn't to say Christine doesn't make some bad situations that just get worse and worse for herself, but you will find yourself concerned for her safety.

This is one of the few horror films where the really scary moments are downplayed and instead moments that would feel incredibly frightening to a character in a situation like Christine's are played up creating a far more real to life experience. There aren't to many movies where horror is used as an expression and communicative tool of a character's emotions, but here it is and it is done effectively.

For a film with such a small budget, you would never know. It may have even worked in the film's favor for every set, every costume, and most of the makeup looks realistic. I don't think they built any sets for this movie. I honestly think they are all location shots. This creates an effect that makes the world the film is showing us seem very close to our real world. This is important because in most horror films the world created feels very much like a created world and not the world we live in. When we think of it as the world we live in suddenly the terror is not only for the events of the movie, but for ourselves and the (far gone) possibility that the events could befall ourselves. The horror itself is more suspense than anything. Raimi is very good with his use of sound and every day ordinary occurrences being scary when you are placed into a fearful mindset. In all honesty, I would consider this movie a masterstroke in crafting a horror movie.

The acting in this movie is far and beyond fantastic. Most of the time Alison Lohman is acting with nothing yet can convince you that something is happening around her. The old woman in the movie(whose name escapes me) does a good job being at times vulnerable and often creepy. The man who plays the psychic(whom I'm seeing more and more in roles and am enjoying his work) really portrays a certain amount of character that makes him seem different than a similar character in the movie Poltergeist. The two men that work at Christine's bank do a good job coming across as men, and not just caricatures of men. The low point in the acting is the parents of the boyfriend. They just don't do too much. But the one that steals the show is without a doubt Matt Long. With this performance and his role from Zach and Miri, he is proving to be a real rising star. In this movie he is playing the loving boyfriend, but more than any character in this film he is realistic. He is at times supportive, and at other times disbelieving. He has quirks and character traits akin to real people.
The biggest flaw is the director's cut. It doesn't add anything to the story and just shows a few alternate shots in certain scenes. And it doesn't need it. So skip watching the directors cut and just watch the theatrical cut(its on the same disk). Bonus features are scarce but this is one of the few times where the movie outweighs any extras. the Audio/Visual components look great and just as rich as they we're in theaters.
Score: 8.9

Top 11 Songs For Lucifer

the top 11 songs for Lucifer











Number 11: Devil Went Down to Georgia
Number ten: Jump in the fire By Metalica
Number 9: `Calling the Maker by Aimee Allen
Number 8: Running with the devil-Van Halen
Number 7: Back in Black By AC/DC
Number 666: Crossroads blues- Robert Johnson
Number 5: Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath
Number four:Highway to hell-Ac/dc
Number 3: Devil on my shoulder- Billy Talent
Number 2: Me and the Devil Blues-robert Johnson
Number one: Sympathy for the Devil-ROlling Stones

a deal

I'll make you a deal...Wait till tommarow...and I'll give you three wishes...

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 19

ITS THE FINAL COUNTDOWN


Number 1



Serenity

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 18

Number Two
The Dark Knight/Batman Begins

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 17

Number 3
Garden State

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 16

Number four
Southland Tales

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 15

Number 5
Donnie Darko

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 14

Number six


Rocky

end of october update

Whew. Things got busy eh?
Alright so Soon(hopefully during November)I'll be up dating the last 9 parts of the top ten list with reviews. These will be extra to fill in the gaps. I'll also be putting together a nice review of the pilot episode for Pretender as an early experience and a Review of Let The Right One In.
Other stuff including another edition of Hollywood Sucks, a top 11 list, A Tester's Dilema: Mantacon, and a couple movie and book reviews will show up. I'm warning you guys now, December may very well become a blackout month for me. Assuming this other gig falls through(i'll likely know by black friday) I'll start doing the last month in comics where I do 500 word reviews of comics from the last month on both ends of the good/bad spectrum from my pull list.
Glad to put that down, lets see me stick to it.

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 13

Numbah 7
Cool Hand Luke

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 12

Number 8....

The Godfather

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 11

Number 9

Sin City

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 10

Number 10....


The Fall

Have you ever known one of those guys that just tells amazing, albeit fantastical and non believable stories that completely captivate you? That is Lee Pace's character in this movie. You will leave this movie wanting him to tell you more stories.
The story is a cool one. A young girl fell picking oranges and found herself in the hospital with a broken arm. A 20 something man finds himself having fallen in a stage accident when he was a stunt worker. The girl is bored and imaginative and finds the man. He agrees to tell her a story but he eventually starts using the story to manipulate her into getting morphine for him.
And this stuff is powerfully emotional, but what is really amazing is the connection to the story our hero, played by Lee Pace, tells and the two fallen's real lives in the hospital. and this story is pure breath taking majesty. If you can see it on a big screen do it. The bigger the better because the movie is incredibly visual. It looks fantastic. The next best viewing mode is on blu ray. The vibrant colors of this film look great and are going to really catch your eye.
Lee Pace is brilliant. Especially in this movie! But really his work is fantastic. He conveys all of the levels of emotions he needs to as both Roy and as the Bandit in the story. The use of the story's characters as metaphor for both Her and His lives is so interesting and great on many levels. Even the climax of his story is big and vibrant and over the top, but it works in favor of the movie.
The locations on this movie look perfect. And they better damn well since their filming is what delayed this movie and made it cost wayyy more than it ever should have. except maybe the hospital set, I do not believe there is more than a single set in the picture and it truly grasps that grand power of a child's imagination to create this fantastical lands out of such a less descriptive story. It might be Roy who is telling the story, but it is through her eyes that the visual of the story is lensed. There are some elements where you might question the nature of their relationship but there is nothing dirty or perverted to this friendship so take your mind out of the gutter. The film technicly doesn't even have a really happy ending. It has a resolved ending and everyone lives, and gives the impression of the happy hollywood level, but when you think about the fact that he is likely not going to be able to work in his field anymore, and she is forced back to the groves they both are returning to things that aren't going to be good on either of them, but ultimately that is not what the film is about. The film is about belief and the power of it.

Ultimately I suggest this movie for anyone(except maybe young young children because of the violence) because the film addresses tough, interesting issues on many levels allowing different intellects and level of involvement and enjoyment at each of them.

10.0

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 9

20. Drag me To Hell
Directed by Sam Raimi
I've been preaching this movie for months. It is the first great horror movie this decade. If you are a fan of horror, or horror comedy, you owe it to your self to see this film. The blood is minimal, the movie is even rated PG-13 but it works in it's favor. This has my total seal of approval.

19.The Empire Strikes Back(1980)
Director: Irvin Kershner
The only Star Wars Film I like on its own. I find Hope boring and cliche, Jedi is predictable, Menace only had good fight scenes, Clones was convoluted, and Sith was dark and edgy but still completely reliant on the previous films. Empire holds up and is a great film it it's own right.

18.Memento(2000)
Director: Christopher Nolan
I can not sing enough praise for the ground this film broke open. It is worth at least two viewings to bring in all of the visual information.

17.Gran Torino(2008)
Director: Clint Eastwood
17. (tied) Dirty Harry
I couldn't choose just one Clint film. They are both great and deeply fascinating. Check Em out.

16. Up(2009)
Director:
An absolute pixar classic. It will have you crying, laughing and feeling genuine emotions for these chracters you know for only a few minutes.

15.Casablanca(1942)
Director: Michael Curtiz
An opus of original thought.

14.Kiss Kiss Bang Bang(2005)
Director: Shane Black
A throw back to the great classic noir and action movies of the ages. Also Robert Downey Jr. is hilarious in it.


13.Princess Bride(1987)
Director: Rob Reiner
You haven't seen this movie? INCONCEIVABLE. Go now! STOP READING THIS. GO. It's that worth it.

12.Seven Samurai(1954)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Absolutely Perfect.

11. Kiki’s Delivery Service(tied)
This is really the single best animated film you will see. No Joke. It is really impressive just how layered this film is. Plus dirigible.


11.Mi Familia(1995)
Director: Gregory Nava
The movie is sometimes titled My Family. It stars Jimmy Smits, Edward James Olmos, and Esai Morales. If those three won't get you into seats to watch a movie then you again might want to consider a different medium for your viewing pleasure.

The Invincible Iron Man - #18

The Invincible Iron Man - #18
Here it is, the penultimate issue of Matt Fraction’s classic storyline. I say classic in that unless Fraction gives up completely on plotting the last issue of this story arc, this will go down as one of those runs where if someone asks for a good Iron Man story, you will tell them about World’s Most Wanted.
The issue picks up where the last issue concluded with Tony in Afghanistan, almost completely devoid of his knowledge. We have Maria Hill and The Black Widow in a H.A.M.M.E.R. cell in Avenger’s Tower and the former armor, Rescue, of Pepper Potts being held by Norman Osborn.
The majority of the issue is limited down to just two threads. We have the Afghanistan plot line and the Tower plot line. The Tower plotline is not entirely what is expected. Instead of being focused on the escape operation of Maria and Black Widow, instead we are given a story of a former SHIELD operative locating Tony Stark and feeling terrible about doing his job and reporting to Norman. Despite this being an Iron Man book, the emotional core of this issue is held entirely by this operative Christopher Walsh. It is a testament to Fraction’s writing that in the span of a single issue I completely cared about this character and found his conflict perplexing. Every single panel of this character feels like someone who hates themselves but keeps doing their work because it is their job. This has a lot to do with some of Salvador Larroca’s art. He has casted Walsh with a sorrow and emotion that most characters (and let’s face it, actors) can’t portray. You will be convinced that this is a man completely tortured by the conflict before him even without words. In fact some of the best material comes when he doesn’t have any words. It is also during these scenes that we get the single most Norman Osborn moment that Fraction has written. I’ve been on the fence about Norman’s portrayal in this book but with the line “I’m Norman Osborn. That’s all the authorization I need.” And then he winks at the reader. In this small, almost insignificant moment, I completely believe this is Norman Osborn and not a writer trying to write Norman.
Now in close second for emotional moment of the issue is Tony Stark’s interaction with kids in Afghanistan. And I am going to be honest, I saw this sequence begin and I was ready for this to be a clichéd moment just before we get to the final act of the World’s Most Wanted storyline. But instead, we have Fraction proving he was born to write Stark by keeping him consistent with everything that has been established about Stark in Fraction’s run and in general by recent writers.
Larrocca’s art needs to be addressed. Other than Walsh, most of his people look off. Most of them have the same head shape but more dramatically contrasting is the look of Tony Stark without his shirt on. He doesn’t look like a person. He looks like a cracked rock and this is a problem. That is not to say that all of his art is bad. All of his machines and settings look great. He can draw an Iron Man Armor like no other, but he really needs to improve his people.
8.9

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 8

I apologies for the week entries this week, hopefully the entries for next week will be more up to par.

30.Monty Python And the Holy Grail(1975)
Director: Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones
Mother Fraking Monty Python. Easily the most commonly loved comedy of all time.


29.Ferris Bueller's Day off(1986)
Director: John Hughes
If there is one classic movie that can properly put teenage lifestyle into perspective, it is Ferris. Come see Alan Ruckman, some chick no one remembers, and Matthew Broderick.

28.Lion King(1994)
Director: Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff
This is the quintessential 90's animated film. Interesting Characters. Great musical numbers. If you aren't hooked into this story you need to stop watching movies because you are wrong.



27.Psycho(1960)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
This is Hitchcock's masterpiece. It defies Horror conventions and set the bar for decades to come. You'll never look at a shower the same way again.

26.Eternal Sunshine of the spotless Mind(2004)
Director: Michel Gondry
I might call it a love story in reverse. But at the same time it inspires you to reflect upon your own tales and adventures and self examine.


25.Finding Nemo(2003)
Director: Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
It's adorable.


24.Charlie Bartlett(2007)
Director: Jon Poll
I'll take flak for this as well. I think all of the casting in this movie is amazing, and the story is absolutely engaging.


23.Sunshine Cleaning(2008)
Director: Christine Jeffs
I really liked this movie. It a number of ways it suprised me and I didn't expect it to turn out the way it did. I was very impressed.

22.Chinatown(1974)
Director: Roman Polanski
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."


21.Guess Who's Coming to Dinner(1967)
Director: Stanley Kramer
Not what you were expecting was it?
This is such an amazing film. It is a masterpiece far beyond Citizen Kane. It tackles so many issues that are still relevant today(and if you don't think they are relevant you are not paying attention to your world). The world and movie developed here are engrossing and you won't be able to stop watching. Sidney Poitier delivers one of the best acting performances in a film. Period.

Dark Reign: The List – Daredevil One-Shot

Dark Reign: The List – Daredevil One-Shot

After a fairly spectacular end game for the last year by Ed Brubaker, we now have his replacement on Daredevil, Andy Diggle. However in the story proper we don’t get to see new regular artist Roberto De La Torre. So all in all this issue should serve two purposes. 1) Setting up Diggle’s new story arc. And 2) continue the story for The List storyline. So is this what we get? Not really.
To begin with while the plot all revolves around Norman Osborn sending Bullseye after Daredevil it doesn’t feel like it’s even relevant. This could have easily been, Bullseye tries to kill Daredevil story and done the exact same thing. Norman even only appears in two pages total and he’s not scripted poorly, he does feel scripted. In fact, the entire plot begs to wonder, if Norman can send his Avengers as their villain personas after people, then why bother have his Black Ops Team, Thunderbolts exist at all? It doesn’t make sense.
Other things that don’t make sense? Lady Bullseye and The Kingpin’s involvement. Now I’ll admit, I really liked how subtle the entire plot that they have laid in placed, and I think I might have missed this had it not stuck out like a sore thumb, but it is an interesting turn and gives me quite a bit of hope for Diggle’s storyline. The only flaw is the obvious questions involving Bullseye and Lady Bullseye. You would think that someone who practically worships a character, would either have reservations about manipulating them or would have tried to interact with said character. It is a small g ripe that might be a storyline that Diggle will address, but in this one shot I’m really disappointed.
The bulk of the issue however is an action sequence that doesn’t do anything too terribly original for a Daredevil Bullseye fight. The conclusion of the fight is cool and most certainly much more drastic than we’ve seen Bullseye take before, but everything else is simply inconsequential. The result of said actions only lead Daredevil to the same story point that nearly every other hero in the Marvel universe has been jumping on board to. Apparently wanting to stop Norman Osborn is this years “Who do you Trust”, “are you a skrull” editorial theme.
The best elements are the potential that Diggle establishes. He has taken the cast and supporting characters that Brubaker(and to a certain extent, Bendis before him) had established and set them up for a more involved recurring role.
Billy Tan’s art well done most the time, giving characters diverse character traits(such as head size). He even manages to frame a few sequences in a minimalistic way to improve the story. That said most of his framing feelings typical and traditional, failing to break new ground and show off the gritty world of Daredevil, instead evoking images I’d expect out of an Avengers book.
I need to give the editors their due, they give you a sneak peek of Daredevil 501 and some sketches of De La Torre’s new design for The Hand Ninjas which look like they fit the world of Daredevil.

SCORE: 6.2

What the Hell Marvel

...
I think the picture speaks for it self(after I did some clever changes) :)


Seriously? What idiot thought Ultimatum was a masterpiece?

Guitar Hero: Van Halen

This post coming early as my schedule has required me to move the next installment of the top 100 films to Friday. (sometime Wednesday I'll also upload two of three comic reviews I did for an application, with the third showing up 4-6 weeks later after I have an idea whether I get the position I am applying for or not.

So instead for Wednesday I have to review the sneak preview copy of Guitar Hero: Van Halen.
First off I am going to say this quickly, Not a fan of Van Halen? Don't buy this game. Fan of Van Halen but afraid there will not be enough hard songs? Well the second half of the setlist is tough, I'll give it that, but only the three solos are really going to give you much trouble.
That out of the way, this is the best set list Guitar Hero has put out since Guitar Hero 3. It is quickly looking like the specialty games are going to be the games for Hardcore players and that the series proper is going to be there to accommodate more of the casual fans.
Of the setlist, only 19 songs are not by Van Halen, but many of those 19 were suggested by Wolfgang Van Halen. The rest are all Van Halen and almost all of them are classics. There are only 4-6 classic Van Halen songs I felt were missing and those are all Sammy Hagar era songs and therefore understandable that they are missing. I hope we will eventually get them as DLC for either Van Halen(which I don't think supports DLC) or for GH5 so that it can be in our collection.
The game returns to form with the return of Hyperspeed as a cheat, Tiered Career that makes sense, Money System, and great customization.
It is the Metalica engine with Van Halen Frame. The songs are fun.
The downside? There's not even 50 songs in the setlist. So unless you really really like Van Halen, I'd wait for it to go used to get it at 20-30 dollars. And then hopefully it can hold you over until the next specialty game. The menu system and graphics have sadly reverted to The Metalica graphics and when I first started playing I thought something was wrong with my game because the note chart had gone back to it's Metalica and it doesn't look nearly as polished as five.
Nitpicking aside, this game has made Guitar Hero fun again for both the hardcore player and the casual player resulting in a hit.
This score is based on my love of Van Halen and should be warned as such:
8.7

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 7

40.Blade Runner(2007,1982,1992)
Director: Ridley Scott
I really love this film. It blends my two non classic genres(Noir and Science Fiction which are both young, no more than 200 years each). Now of course there are in face quite a few different cuts, but the final cut is pretty definitive. That said this is one of those instances where you can choose how you want this film to play out. I'm going to warn you this film does not come out and tell you everything that it is happen and requires deeper study(going against what I believed for Citizen Kane) however, this film rewards you with a greater understanding on the world that Ridley Scott crafted using a Philip K. Dick novel as the blueprint.

39.Hellboy 2(2008)
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
This is another film part of the second wave of comic book movies, more importantly it takes on the genre of Fantasy. The unique thing about the second wave of comics(that began with Iron Man) was that they instead of making an action/comedy starring comic characters, they instead went about making good genre movies(Fantasy for Hellboy, TechnoScifi for IronMan, Crime Drama for Dark Knight) and you can tell this was the goal because the movies are about that. They aren't about making a quick buck off of a trend, instead it is all about tell a good story. Hellboy 2 is an amazing fantasy movie(though as a fantasy movie it is second to Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth) but it makes up for it by offering up a great experience that while respecting the original source material it also respects it's audience to give you a good story and an original one at that.


38.Cabinent of Doctor Cagliari(1920)
Director: Robert Wiene
This is a classic expressionist film that does such a great job telling such an old story that sometimes you wonder if it really was made in the 1920's.

37.The Third Man(1949)
Director: Carol Reed
Check it out, many film fans will say its better than both Citizen Kane and Casablanca. It's noir. It's got Orson Welles. It is every hyperbole I could throw at you. Check it out.


36.Rambo(2008)
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Half an hour of talking, an hour of action and a compelling messege that is relevant to today's audiences.

35.Grave of the Fireflies(1988)
Director: Isao Takahata
This movie is really heartbreaking and it is such an amazing film, and I'll admit it, this movie makes me cry because it is both really good and really sad and will aim for your heart and not let go. It'll depict a horrible image of WWII for you from a perspective you might not have seen. It is rare right now, but if you find someone who has it, see it.

34.Jurassic Park(1993)
Director: Steven Spielberg
What kid didn't love dinosaurs at least for a little while? This film actually manages to hold up as a great movie about itself. More thriller than scifi or Horror, its message isn't necessary much anymore but it gives you a good look into where we predicted technology could take us.

33.Back to the Future(1985)
Director: Robert Zumekis
A classic comedy about time travel.

32.Fight Club(1999)
Director: David Fincher
Has someone ruined the ending for this movie for you? No? and you haven't seen it? Go see it. It's a mind puzzle on top of being a masculine awareness movie.

31.Toy Story(1995)
Director: John Lasseter
The original pixar film, this movie has everything any good family film has, which is the ability to entertain the whole family. Kudos team pixar, kudos.

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 6

50.Citizen Kane(1941)
Director: Orson Welles
Ow. Ow. I can feel you verbally yelling at me from across the internet for Kane only being number fifty on my list. But here me out, I've had to watch this film more times than I can count to STUDY it. I've stopped being to enjoy it as much as I once could. This is a list about my enjoyment of film because film shouldn't just be art, it's entertainment, which makes it far more complex. Also way smarter men

49.Terminator(1984)
Director: James Cameron
This is one of the best low budget action films ever made. This is the movie that made Arnold a star and it started a franchise. More horror than it is action, the film does a good job at setting up the world that this film is set within and telling it's story. Yes there is some over abundance of nudity at times but in it's defense almost all of the action, all of the sex(the one scene) and the nudity it all contributes to the greater narrative. There is no Roman Polanski lets have lady Macbeth run around naked while she gives her soliloquy for no reason. This is Grade A material in the world of Science Fiction and Horror and does a good job blending both genres.

48.Dedication(2007)
Director: Justin Theroux
This is not the film you expect it to be. It wasn't the film I expected to it to be. It is one of those few romantic comedies since Say anything that I felt truly deserves to exist. The three leads(Billy Crudup, Mandy Moore, and Tom Wilkinson) each knock their performances out of expectations. There are some many story elements that work well and much of the films dialogue and ideas function truly truly well. It has a dark sense of humor to it and it is a bit touching. But it's a bit true to life in a number of respects. And there is a level of complexity in the relationships of the characters that you won't generally find in most films.

47.Meet the Robinsons(2007)
Director: Stephen J. Anderson
To be honest, this is one of those animated films that completely tugs at my heart strings. This is one of those movies that will make you laugh with some of its silly little humor and then it will also also make you feel for the characters and what they go through.

46. 12 monkeys(1995)
Director: Terry Giliam
Two time travel films in a row? What? Alright This is one of Terry Gilliam's crazy out there films. It is based on the french "movie" Le Jettee, and it takes a look in the inevitability of time travel. Brad Pitt delivers one hell of a performance. This is one of those films that gets better with each viewing.


45.Apocolypse Now(1979)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Marlon Brando is amazing in this movie. Also it has such a classic story that will wondering just how f'ed up Vietnam really was.

44.V for Vendetta(2005)
Director: James McTeigue
Let Alan Moore hate on this film all he wants. The creators created a film where you can sympathize with a terrorist and even root for him. That's quite the accomplishment in it of itself.


43.Beauty and the Beast(1991)
Director: Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise
Classic fairy tale of Love and hatred of those that are different and how neither is right in either side of the hatred. A truly great and touching Fairy Tale. One of the last great solo disney projects.


42.Iron Man(2008)
Director: Jon Favreau
This film basically marks the new era in SuperHero movies. It will be remember as the film that started marvels film universe. But more importantly, you have Robert Downey Jr. playing a character he was born to play. Tony Stark was made for him and you'll be believe and care for this guy even when he's a jerk because of Downey's Performance.


41.Touch Of Evil(1958)
Director: Orson Welles
An Orson Welles Noir classic of life sprialing out of control and police wanting to cross the line even when they shouldn't. A precursor for Dirty Harry.

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 5

60.the Prestige(2006)
Director: Christopher Nolan
An interesting departure from Batman Begins that returns back to the style that has made this man famous. The Prestige does everything that The Illusionist had wanted to do but failed. I've found it enjoyable upon multiple viewings and suggest a second look if you weren't sure about it your first time.

59.Fantasia(1940)
Director: Various
Music? Check. Animation? Check. Together? Check check. I'm not a musical-ologist. I don't study music. But I was moved by a number of the musical numbers in conjunction with the images presented to me in a way that I'm not by either one by their lonesome.

58.Shawshank Redemption(1994)
Director: Frank Darabont
Please don't make me explain why this film has to be on this list.


57.Die Hard(1988)
Director: John McTiernan
This is the quintessential action/Comedy.

56.Rear Window(1954)
Director: Hitchcock


55.Nightmare Before Christmas(1993)
Director: Henry Selick
This comes with a caveat. I can only suggest this film if you can A) stand stop motion, B) stand musicals, and C) stand the film that basically started the Emo movement. Get past those three things and you will find yourself immersed in a great universe that is so rich and textured that after your first viewing, start watching the background for all of the colorful characters.

54.Stand By Me(1986)
Director: Rob Reiner
Not exactly what you expect out of Stephen King but the film does rock a cool story about growing up and really defines coming of age movie for me.

53.The Matrix(1999)
Director: Wachowski brothers
I am sure you have heard every thing to be said against this film. You might have heard the things in favor of this film. But there

52.Star trek Wrath of Khan(1982)
Director: Nicholas Meyer
I know I said that the 2009 film was really good and might have said it was better because it was more easily accessible. all of which is true. But if you love that classic series, and even if you don't, this is the highlight of the original time line. Khan proves to be an epic film filled with interesting characters and Ricardo Montaban's Pecks of doom.

51.Unbreakable(2000)
Director: M. Night Shyamalan

In my opinion, this is the only M. Night movie worth a dime. It is a really cool, original super hero story that's not. I know, your saying "Max, that doesn't make any sense." Well let me explain. This is a movie about a man who has a super power. But he goes about it the way many people would, which is hesitantly. Yes the twist is obvious like all M Night twists. But you get two really interesting characters out of Sam Jackson and Bruce Willis and it is one of those experiences that may not have a profound affect on you, but it does show that even before The Dark Knight, there were people out there trying to get the idea of super heroes taken seriously.

A little bit of sharing

The check out the following site:
http://stopuweboll.org/

If you know who Uwe Boll is then you already know to sign the petition.

Be clear, Uwe Boll is a German Film Maker(and sometimes boxer) who using a loophole in German technology, I mean government, is able to get his money back from making movies even if they flop. I'm fairly certain he saw the movie(or the play, or the movie based on the play) of The Producers and thought, BRILLIANT. He is a horrible horrible man who thinks everything he does is brilliant and that he is damn near infallible. He has also said that if a million people sign he will stop making movies. Oh dear god we can stop this man? Alright let us do it. Spread the word. He is going down.

Terra Khan- The Tester's Dilemma

Terra Khan- The Tester's Dilemma

I've been an avid Planet Eaters fan even before I knew I wanted to play. So to say my second faction out of the base six(Terrasuars) is like the red-headed Bastard Step Son is an understatement. In particular I've NEVER been able to win a game, or even make a game close, using Terra Khan.
I love Terra Khan. When I got into this game 3-4 months ago I knew that whatever monster I got out of my starter would be my secondary faction(unless I pulled a second Gorghadra, and then I'd only play one faction. So when I pulled Terra Khan, I was excited. I thought, "sweet, the Godzilla monster, I can now also grab Rodan at some point and the other three". They were always intended as my secondary faction. So in the last week after finding out the prize for this weeks tournament(mega Tyrranix) I decided, hey look, Terra Khan.
Now as I began testing I discovered this might be worse than I thought(I've even been considering playing the secondary faction for testing purposes, Rogzor). Alright so let's look at Terra Khan himself before we make any judgments.

First His Alpha, because we have no choice in this(hint hint PP, i want some alternate alphas!)

Wow, he's not bad for an TK
Speed: 6
D:6
Brawl:8 *2
Blast(long) 5*1
P; 6*2
Hp: 5

Abilities: Feeding Frenzy(brawl), Munch(Brawl), Berserk(blue), Flank, and Motivator.

Alright so clearly those abilities support two themes. 1) Unit support. With motivator, Flank, Berserk you are clearly supposed to be up in your opponents grill with units with Terra Khan standing beside them so they can just kick the monster. Also Feeding Frenzy makes TK want units next to your opponents monster so he can do that extra damage with brawl.

The other theme, though light, is unit destruction(though to be fair this more supports the idea that you want to be more defensive with TK than you do with say a destroyers monster.

Despite having a blast attack, this form does not support blasting. You really are better off using the extra dice to step or brawl a building for health and or p-dice.

Next we have Ultra Khan.

UK's stats are
S:8
D:5(ick)
Brawl: 9*4 (holy crap)
Blast(short) 7*2
p:7*2
HP: 6

abilities: Lightning attack(brawl), Disrupt blast, Explosion Blast, and Weapon master power attack.

UK is much a change in strategy. No longer do you want to hold back and use your units to support trying to beat on your opponent, this is all about rushing the gates and doing as much damage as you can. Right off the bat you can do one of two things. Brawl twice with dice in play(this should come out to two points of damage) or use a power attack with weapon master. Depending on your available a-dice(which unless you had a full p pool or just won't gain p die from power up, you power up bringing you down to 7-8 A die). at 7 or 8 A-die you really will benefit from doing a power attack since you are likely to gain building damage one way or another. Even if you just use a swat you can make sure to gain something out of it. In other words you want to be using Power attacks over brawl attacks and use the brawl attacks when you are out of P dice.
He can blast, but that's only really good for early disruption, there are easier and better ways to kill units, and if you honestly feel that dropping someone out of hyper is better than killing the hyper form, be my guest, disrupt away.

Lastly we come to my after testing least fave. Mega Khan.

Mk's stats look like this:

S:8
D:5(ick)
Brawl: 9*2
Blast(short) 6*1
p:8*3
HP: 6
something looking odd there? You just traded B die and pools in brawl and blast for a extra pool and b-die for power...
Maybe his abilities will support this idea?
Brawl chain attack, Charge, super rampage, and terrify.

Oh dear god this guy is bad. Chain attack is the single worst way to deal extra damage. this is because it doesn't use dice in play. Terrify isn't really useful either because most of the powerful abilities don't require adjacency, and there are more problematic blasting units than brawling units.
This leaves super rampage and charge as his only good abilities, and charge is only marginally good and can't be used if you are using rampage.

I hate Mega Khan because he offers no synergy within himself. At least UT uses his abilities to make up for his own shorting comings with some attacks so you actually can make a variety of strategies.
Mega Khan's best strategy is to turtle. You field five Mt. Terra's, five apartment buildings, and then an Insurance building and a Imperial state building. ISB is the best P-die production off a single building. Mt T. is No fly zone allowing you to slow down other monsters. And also fire. And then Apartment buildings are obviously Health.
If you didn't know, insurance building is the best building in the game. Shuffle and insurance do wonders for you. Buildings die left and right and this pays you for it. Then Shuffle is great if you need to take that turn where you really need that extra A-dice to take another turn. Be it monster or unit(I'm known for taking up to 7 Monster turns in a row)
Then Mega Khan does things like run( not far for this to work), punch your opponents monster and rampage back to your side of the map. Can't get to your opponents monster without 8 steps? Then make sure you have full pools or else it's not worth using chain attack. I learned with xaxor without perfect dice management, Chain attack helps no one but your opponent.

so lets assume your running ultra Khan.
I judge a defense of a monster based on its defense plus health and then a (-1) for each point bellow 7 on defense. That makes Ultra Khan a 11(-2). Alpha Khan is then a 11(-1). Therefore you either need to be really defensive with Ultra Khan(which again with his abilities does not synergize) or be very aggressive.
This is all well and good, except his Alpha clearly wants to be played defensively. And this comes to my fault with Terra Khan. he doesn't Synergize with himself. I love both Xaxor and Gorghadra because both have a plan and can be played the same. Any monster that requires you to completely change the way you play the game is going to throw you off, especially when you are knocked from one form to the other beyond your control(i.e. disrupt or death of a form) and can mess with any strategies you've built. If your playing as UK or MK and are going nuts at your opponents monster only to flop and roll and get smashed into three buildings and lose your form you are suddenly in the Unit heavy leader form but with no units prepared to support your new situation.

I will admit, there are play style issues going about for me. I'm a far more aggressive player in miniatures(I come from playing Tyranids in 40k) and this is working against me. But I'm also a power attack heavy player. I find that the most damage, control and disruption comes from performing power attacks. And yeah therefore Negation gives me trouble, but there are still ways around that.
Terra Khan, and much of the T-saurs units feel that they are built for turtling. This makes it hard to win timed games. I don't agree with fielding a monster who can't win the timed matches. Because all tournaments are going to have them. This plus his lack of synergy for me to build a unit force upon makes him a subpar monster in my book.
Therefore If you must play TK, play Ultra. But ultimately I can't recommend him.

We will see as time goes on if I finish this series and review the other four T-saurs or if I take the easy way and do an article for the Planet Eaters. I might, if I get any response for it, recommend some of the new faction monsters once I have a better idea of the field.

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 4

70.LA Confidential(1997)
Director: Curtis Hanson
This is a well written, well executed, and well acted film. I have a few issues here and there with the direction, but there are alot of moments in the film that simply will blow you away. This is one of the film where I feel like Guy Pierce is one of our most underused actors of our generation and could use more exposure.
I can not mention this film without mentioning Kevin Spacey. He sells this movie for me. Without Kevin Spacey this film might not be on this list, his acting is top notch, and I'd almost argue it's his best performance he's given. Kim Baisinger is pretty spectacular in the film as well.


69.Say Anything(1989)
Director: Cameron Crowe
This is the be all end all of romance movies. No it's not a "chick flick". There are a number of negative conotations associated with "chick flick" that this film shouldn't be grouped in with. It does follow the age old basic romance movie formula, Girl meets boy. boy falls in love with girl. Boy gets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy wins girl back. But there are also some interesting sub plots along with a fantastic character played by John Cussack. One of things that I believe Cameron Crowe knew was that this film was going to survive solely on the quality of the actor playing Lloyd. And it is through Lloyd that we are able to witness this world that could today be easily seen as a cliche but instead it is translated into an original(okay that might be a bit of a stretch) story that breaks tradition and instead might just surprise you with how true to life these characters are portrayed. Teens have sex, drink, but they also are good people in there too and are just caricatures. The one thing I always say about this film is that it is for me the first last and best romance movie ever made. And with so few exceptions(that I can count on one hand) there has never been a reason to make another romance movie(unless your a studio trying to make money).


68.Raiders of the Lost Ark(1981)
Director: Steven Spielberg
A classic adventure of Action, Romance, and Comedy. Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones is an American Icon that also happens to be a really well done film. With great directing as was the pattern(before Spielberg slipped into his disturbing trend in the 90's/2000's) and pretty good writing on the part of George Lucas before he became the CGI hack you are taken on a ride that keeps up and who doesn't love some Nazi killing goodness?

67.Star Trek(2009)
Director: J.J. Abrams
Now I know I am going to take some flak for putting this up so high on this list(or at all) but hear me out. More than any other film in the Star Trek franchise, this film managed to take elements of science fiction and made them both interesting and unique(and not just geek porn shots of the Enterprise, I'm looking at you Motion Picture). And you would think with a film so heavily entrenched in mythology and time travel that it would be completely inaccessible to non fans, especially people who don't know a thing about The Original Series except that it had Spock in it(I'm serious, there is a large percent of people who don't know who Captain Kirk is) and they managed to introduce an incredible amount of characters who will become name brands again. The movie is not perfect, there is a chunk of material involving Nero that just isn't up to the standard of the rest of the film, but you have performances from Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Karl Urban(!!!), and of course, Leonard Nemoy, that just knock this film out of the park for being one the greatest science fiction films out there. And if you are a fan(unless you are a purist) you too are going to be entertained proving that you can appeal to both the fan boy and the casual viewer without bending the franchise over the counter and having your way with it.

66.In Bruges(2008)
Director: Martin McDonagh
Oh man is this movie messed up. There are so many lines crossed in this film. And it is those very line crossings that make this film such a great dark comedy. And with great acting from Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes you really get a sense that these are hit men who are written. But they are written to entertain(which they do) and really is going to defy your expectations. The real reason this film works is because it throws up concepts like being politically correct and instead goes for the more extreme, but it is a logical extreme that improves the film as a whole.

65.Aliens(1986)
Director: James Cameron
The horror/action movie that has been described to be as the best in both genres. The film is good, taking all of the concepts in the original Alien and toning them differently so that they work and function more to the strengths of James Cameron's strengths. But keep in mind that the directors cut adds about 20 minutes of padding to the film. It doesn't necessarily fair better or worse than the original, it simply enhances your viewing experience.

64.Ghostbusters(1984)
Director: Ivan Reitman
This is a film much like several others that has been hyped up to no end. And it meets those expectations created by such hype.

63.Casino Royale(Bond)(2006)
Director: Martin Campbell
This, I feel, is the only bond film where I don't feel like I'm watching a dumb action movie. Instead I feel like it grounds bond down and you the viewer feel more like you are watching a character than this stereotyped James Bond persona.

62.Maltese Falcon(1941)
Director: John Huston
One of the best noir films, Bogart is going to have you believing you might just get wacked at any moment. This is one of the best adaptations of a literary work. Period.

61.Toy Story 2(1999)
Director: John Lasseter & Ash Brannon
It takes what the original did, and expands the scope of it. a continuation of what had come before without weakening the resolve or power of the original. Don't believe me? For a limited time only(as of the time of this being written in the fall of 2009) a double feature is being released of Part one and Two and you can see for yourself that Toy Story 2 did for Toy Story what Godfather Part two did for Godfather.

The top 11 songs of 2004

This is the top 11 songs of 2004
11.Disney land by five for fighting
10.Sometimes you can't make it on your own by U2
9.All these things that I've done by The killers
See who I am by within temptation
8.Forget it by Breaking Benjamin
7.The Longest day by Full blown rose
6.Hurt by Nine inch nails
5.I don't want to know by New found glory
4.Almost by Bowling for soup
3.Broken by Seether
2.Picture perfect by Tyler Hilton
1. Polaris by Jimmy Eat World










Heres the list of songs that didn't make the cut but were considered:

The 12th day by Autopilot Off
The Geeks Get the girls by American Hi fi
Make a sound by Autopilot Off
1985 by Bowling for soup
Down for the count by bowling for soup
Somebody get my mom by bowling for soup

Rain by Breaking Benjamin
With arms wide open by Creed
Everybody's fool by Evenesence
My imortal by evenescence
My Opinion by the exies
Dear enemy by the exies
Angels and girlfriends by Five for fighting
Take me out by Franz Ferdinand
It's good to be in love by frou frou
Chariot by Gavin Degraw
I don't want to be by Gavin Degraw
The Chronicles of life and death by Good Charlotte
I just wanna live by Good Charlotte
Futures by Jimmy eat world
Kill by Jimmy eat world
Just tonight by Jimmy Eat World
Leave (get out) by Jojo
Mr. Brightside by The killers
Points of Authority/99 problems/one step closer by Jay-Z and liknin park
burn Burn by lost prophets
Blow me away by Breaking Benjamin
Float on by Modest Mouse
Untitled hidden track(sex drugs and rock and roll) by Saliva
Survival of the Sickest by Saliva
One by Simple plan
In time by marc collie
Vindicated by Dashboard confessional
Gifts and curses by yellowcard
Vertigo by U2

Just another quick update

Quick update, I have the rest of the top 100 list scheduled. it is set. It is in Blog spot. It will be automatically posting on monday/wens/fri starting monday for another 1-2 weeks. at about 5 pm pacific.


I may post stuff between then, we shall see. it depends on if I find something I feel needs to be reviewed.

Also if you read the site, enjoy it, want more, hit the follow button up at the top.

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 3

So this is going to be a list of the top 100 films in my opinion. Periodically I'll update it because other than slots 1-10, which I put an incredible amount of time and effort into devising, it is roles of 11-100 which I have more trouble with. So I'm going to start at the bottom of the list and work my way up for the next ten days, giving an idea of the films that I have enjoyed and found to be successful.

80.Juno(2007)
This is a really good movie. It's funny(even if some of it's jokes are incorrect) and its got actual heart to it. It's quite the feat.

79.Terminator 2:Judgement Day(1991)
One of the greatest action films of all time. So awesome that it made the next two movies suck because it was so good.

78. Repo:The Genetic Opera(2008)
Second best musical of the last year. True Story.

77.Gladiator(2000)
Russel Crowe. Ridley Scott. Win.


76.Spirited Away(2001)
a Miyazaki great. This film will confuse you enough where you are forced to think about it and explore it.


75.Equilibrium(2002)
I like it. So sue me.

74.Double Indemnity(1944)
Fantastic noir movie. Compelling and well acted. This is going to send you into a downward spiral of awesome.

73.Hercules(1997)
This is one of those great disney movies that brutally masacres the truth. But its well voiced and the animation and story are worth your time.

72.Cars(2006)
Director: John Lasseter & Joe Ranft
This is one of those pixar movies that you either loved it or thought it wasn't that great. It certainly has a formula, but there is a huge amount of heart and soul to this and Paul Newman knocks it out of the part.


71.The Signal(2007)
Director: Jacob Gentry & Dan Bush & David Bruckner
This movie is broken into three segments. They have a sick, dark style humor, they are scary, but overall this is a fantastic horror movie.

The top 100 films(Fall 2009 edition) - Part 2

So this is going to be a list of the top 100 films in my opinion. Periodically I'll update it because other than slots 1-10, which I put an incredible amount of time and effort into devising, it is roles of 11-100 which I have more trouble with. So I'm going to start at the bottom of the list and work my way up for the next ten days, giving an idea of the films that I have enjoyed and found to be successful.


Number 90 Halloween(1978)
This is one of the all time best horror films. Carpenter did things in this film that were so original and out there, but so effective for how cheap the movie was that he created magic. This is the kind of Magic that only low budget movies can create. it is this great master piece that would set the stage for slasher films to come. And for note, it manages to be a slasher film while seriously toning down the graphic violence and sex. Its mostly implied. And along with the score it creates far more tension that these horrible slasher films of today.

Number 89 First Blood(1982)
Most of you might not know what this film is, it is that first, visceral film in the Rambo series. While not nearly as strong as Sly's other franchise, Rocky, this movie manages tackle themes and thoughts that would otherwise be ignored outside of panned films such as StopLoss. On top of that its a good movie wouldn't you know it?

Number88 Pirates of the Caribbean(2003)
Johnny Depps break out, international sucsess is what sells this movie. Yeah sure Keira's not bad and a number of the supporting chracters do a good job selling the world. This is the movie before they wanted to take the franchise into Fantasy land and instead it follows a pretty simple ghost pirate story that would even baffle scooby doo.

Number 87 Dead Poet's Society(1989)
This is one of those inspirational coming of age movies that actually manages to click with it's audience. and while it isn't nearly as high art as it would like to pretend it is, the film does a good job keeping you entertained and wanting to come back to revisit these wonderful characters.

Number 86 Spider-Man 2(2004)
Until Spider-man 2, many comic fans looked at the genre of comic book movies as nothing more than cheap knock offs of the stories they loved and treasured that couldn't stand up and tell their own story. But then Spider-man peeled its way in with its sympathetic villains, its horror inspired scenes, and its epic promise of Love, Action, and Shocking twists. Plus the movie is a great deal of fun.

Number 85 Alien(1979)
This is what I like to refer to as the birth of the modern creature feature. It is a dirty, violent, gore filled opera of space that represents that other part of the horror scale that Halloween didn't give you. But it also started a movement that would be continued and preserved for years to come, the strong female badass, and for that I salute you Alien.

Number 84 The Rocky Horror Picture Show(live)
I know I know, the movie it self is pretty horrible. And they really need to get a dvd out there with fan commentaries that can at least try and emulate the experience of watching the show live. If you have a chance, this is a great comedy to see but don't see it unless you have a group of people about 60 percent rewatchers, and 40 percent newbies.

Number 83 There will be blood(2007)
Oh, what a great, long, drawn out character study of what should have been a despicable character and yet he is compelling to constantly want to know where his character is going. Day-Lewis is brilliant in the role and that earns it a place in my heart.

Number 82 The Graduate(1967)
It isn't too often that I feel a comedy manages to age well. Far too often I feel like I'm being pushed and pulled but never really have that chance to laugh. And if I do laugh it's because the story feels dated. The true kind of comedy classic should be timeless. At the same time, this is a movie out to say something. Because it is also a drama. You feel uncomfortable about the relations that occur in the story and you get invested in the characters, and while sure its a great story point to end on, you want to see more because not much gets tied up. The film is fairly bleak and it is this bleak comedy styling that we are missing now a days and can maybe one day re approach.

Number 81 Nightmare Alley(19XX)

I couldn't find the right year for this film. And yeah its a sad exscuse for an adaptation, but the story it commits to is a great one and on its own it manages to stand up and prove itself to be one of those classic noir pieces that deserves to be remembered.





keep in mind this is a list of Opinion, and merely a suggestion list. If you need a film to see, look to my list. You are likely to find something great that could very likely change your world.