Movie Review: Shrek Forever After

Shrek Forever After

     Shrek Forever After, Is the last entry into the magical, fairly tale land that is Shrek. In this installment Shrek feels he lost his ogerhood (manhood) and is looking to get it back.

It is kind of a midlife crisis for him. He makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin, who is evil and takes advantage of shrek. From their on out the whole story is shrek trying to fix what he did. 

Characters

     Most of the characters are back including Shrek (Mike Myers) Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz), puss in boots (Antonio Banderas), and Donkey ( Eddie Murphy). Along with appearances by the king and queen, magic mirror, and the gingerbread man. New characters are a lot more witches, Rumpelstiltskin, a army of ogres, and my favorite the Piede Pipper.

Story

     The story was pretty well written, but unfortunately it was easy to predict. The one liners were priceless. The new attitudes of the original characters allowed for more interesting jokes. The Pied Pipper and what he did was hilarious, I don't want to spoil the movie, but I think he was the best part of the movie.

The Ending

     This was the end chapter in the story of Shek the Ogre. Over the years he has kept us entertained. At my first theater job I was lucky enough to see the first one when it was released. And I feel lucky to be able to see this one. I will miss the Shrek series. The end of the movie unfortunately repeated one of the older songs of the series, and their was not enough dancing like Ive seen in the other shreks. But the story was finished with a happy ending and in a very classy way.

     This is definitely a movie to see. Unfortunately I have to tell you if you want a peaceful viewing of it you should see the latest show at your local theater, or just wait to rent, or buy it when hit comes out on Blue ray, or DVD. I suggest doing it this way, not because it isn't worth a theater visit, but because this will be a huge children's movie, and the theater will be packed with figiting, candy eating, wanting to use the restroom, messy kids.

Video Game Review: Modern Warfare 2

     Modern Warfare 2 is a game that originally was a new version of Treyarch's Call of Duty Series. Modern Warfare was a version that takes place in current time, instead of the classic WW2 series. Infinity Ward is the production company for Modern Warfare so far. Modern Warfare 2 is the latest installation, until Modern Warfare: Black Ops that is supposed to be released this fall.
     Modern Warfare 2 was released to critics acclaim. The broke many selling records with the release of this game. It was one of the most sold games ever. It is available on the PS3 (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) Xbox(Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) and PC (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2). I purchased my version (PS3) at 12:01 on it's release date, I was only second in line.
     The game updated only a little bit from the last version. A couple more weapons were added. The perks system had a couple updates that made it a lot more complicated. The things you can call in when you reach a certain number of kills in a row increased from 3 to an ass ton, which was a great addition, except the nuclear option. My favorite new feature was the game searching system. It tells you what type of game it is searching for, and how fast are the rooms running.
    The story was epic, and very well written. The controversial part was a great part of the story, it pulled you emotionally into the story. The story was not as emotional as the nuclear weapon that was in the first one. But the story was long enough to emerse you , and give you a few hours of entertainment.
     The online play is better in a couple areas. Finding a decent room is easier. Also inviting a friend that is not playing is easier on the PS3 not that it actually sends a psn message. The maps are a good variety, but there seems to not be enough small maps. Also the maps seem like they were way to thought out in some areas, and not enough in others. I like to snipe (I dont always snipe though) when is seems like I can line up a shot across the map, there always seems like there is a tree in the way. This makes all of the sniping spots more venerable because you have to be close to a person to snipe. Another complaint is that the good sniping spots I found are way to easy to not die. They usually only have one way to get into the spot, and  when someone has found you it is too easy to take cover. I know these two points kind of contradict each other, but I will explain further. I feel like a good sniping spot in a game should be very far away from the action. It should be hard to get a shot into your sites, with it aiming perfectly. Also the sniping spot should be easy to sneak up on and attack. This will cause the people who like to snipe to make a decision of whether they want to considerate a lot on getting that perfect shot across the map, or on whether someone is trying to sneak up on their position.
     There also seems like there is to many extreme additions to the game. One of them is the ability to jump off a 2 story building and land without getting hurt. That is ridiculous. It should of been less damage from jumping from a certain hight. Another thing was the dual double shotguns (I think this is the 1941 something) they were way to powerful for the game. It allowed people to run maps way to easily. They could also reload really quickly. This gun had few weaknesses. I am pretty sure they fixed this problem. But it should of been fixed sooner.
     The game was good overall. Unfortunately I dont think it is as near as good as the MW was. I feel since they have a new game coming out within a year of the original that they did not focus completely on MW2. I do recommend buying this game, but it probably wont be one you keep for your entire life. ( I will never get ride of MW 1)

Movie Review: Kick Ass

     Kick Ass is a comic book based movie. (Get the book here Kick-Ass) The characters have no super powers, all they have is some money, and the will to fight for good. They are not special in any way. 

     I found this movie very entertaining. I did not expect a lot of the twists that happened in the movie. The main character Kick Ass was a good choice for the perspective of the movie. He is just a regular high school kid with girl problems, and a group of tight friends. Kick Ass is very awkward but he has a good heart. How others perceive him is very funny, they often insult him. 

     The best part of the movie is Hit Girl. From the very beginning she is one bad ass chick. She takes bullets to the chest without flinching and takes down guys 5 times bigger then her. Her one liners are awesome, and they are only better coming from a young girl. She is very acrobatic and deadly. She has so many ways to kill people she never gets old. 

     Hit Girl's dad, Big Daddy is also a bad ass. He is not focused on too much in the movie, but when he is he is one bad mutha fucker. He trained Hit Girl, and helps her learn more throughout the movie. 

     The movie overall is great. The action scenes are well choreographed, and the music is a great touch during these scenes (check the music our here Kick-Ass: Music ).The movie adds a lot of funny one liners, and is constantly changing. There is a love story that is worked into the story and it is progressed without spending too much time on it. The dialoge is well chosen and fits the characters well. The bad guys are of the normal viriaty, and there is a suprise that is not given away in the previews. This was a great movie to see in theaters, but I dont think you will miss much renting or buying it. If you are not into action movies then I only suggest renting it. This will deffently be a buy, on blue ray for me. Hopefully I can get a DRM free digital version too.Kick-Ass: Music from the Motion Picture

Movie Review: Iron Man 2

Iron man is about a super rich weapons developer, Tony Stark (Robert Downy Jr.). He has an awakening in the first movie (get it here Iron Man (Single-Disc Edition) for $11.49) where he finds that his company is selling his weapons to terrorist. He is captured and has to escape. To escape the terrorist caves that he is trapped in, he builds a prototype iron suit that he can fit inside. He escapes and returns home, where he redesigns the suit and turns it into a weapon for good.
     In Iron Man 2 he is busy keeping the world safe, and showing off. The US government wants the suit turned over to them. That is where I will stop in order to not give away too much of the story.
     My thoughts on the movie were at first that it would be a let down. When I saw the movie last Wednesday I was very surprised. Tony Stark was the same douche we have all grown to love. His mishaps and one liners make him look volatile, and uncontrollable. But when he has to put in work as Iron Man he always comes through. The movie turned out to be great. I was disappointed that Terrence Howard was replaced by Don Cheadle, only because it makes the movies not match up as much. They are both great actors.
     One of the disappointments that I had is the connections to the characters where not built very well. You never felt any love between them. They should of spent a little more time working on the relationships. The movie would of been longer (as it stands now it is just over 2 hours) but I would of thought that the movie would of been that much better. Speaking of love, It also seems like the love story between Tony Stark, and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) was edited out, and you only see a real connection at the end.
     Another thing I noticed is that when Iron Man was on screen, it never looked like Tony Starks head could fit into the mask. When the mask was put on during a clip it does look like his head could fit, but after it cuts away, and then back the head and neck look much too small.
     Other then the few disappointments that I had, I loved the movie. I could hardly tell that it was 2 hours long. The action scenes where well done, for the most part. And John Favreau even had a fight scene. I highly recommend this movie this summer. The box office numbers might not seem to be as high as they should for a summer block buster, but you have to realize that this was released in May, when most schools are still in session.

Video Game Review: Boarderlands

     Boarderlands is a video game for the Xbox 360 and PS3 gaming system. It was developed by gearbox software and published thought 2k games. The game mixes strong shooter elements, with some RPG elements. The characters you choose are specialized in different skills, such as, a soldier with a turret, a sniper with a hawk like bird, a siren who fights like wonder woman, and a ultrapowerfull strong man.

     In my first play through I played as the soldier. His special skill is a torrent. Like all the other characters you can upgrade his torrent with a skill tree. This lets you decide which fighting style you want to take you character in. I  chose the brute force stlyle. 

     I love this game a lot. The graphics are very interesting and are reminiscent of comic books. The people of the game all have different personalities, and they keep you laughing through the whole game. The amount of possible weapons available are just ridicoulus. The story took me around 40+ hours to beat, and it gives you the option to play though again with everything you earned. The second play though makes all of the previous enemies even harder, and gives you better loot. 

     I have only played the co-op a little bit, but what I have learned is, that it would of been funner to do it since the beginning. Playing co-op makes the enemies even harder, and the loot even better. 

     After a while the get mission, travel, fight, then find,  way of playing the game gets old. There is no other way to play the game though. Also the load times while traveling between worlds is slow, and the load time graphics are annoying.

     Over all I highly recommend this game to anyone who loves shooters. It is action packed and challenging. The art is beautiful, and the story is entertaining. With the 40+ hours of game play, plus co-op, and expansion packs the game is well worth the money.

     As always I like to provide a link to purchase this product through amazon. If you are going to buy from there please use this link so I can get paid a little bit. Thank you for reading.
Borderlands for PC ($27.99)
Borderlands for PS3 ($36.99)
Borderlands for Xbox ($36.99)