April 2008 Archives

So...finally got my X-Box 360, as a "paid off my credit debt" present to myself.  And, of course, I couldn't just get the machine for the four games I already had.  Noooooo!  I had to get Guitar Hero 3 (with the wireless guitar) and Rock Band as well.  Plus three more games.  So that puts me up to the following list of options:

• Assassin's Creed
• Blitz: The League
• Burnout Paradise
• Call of Duty 4
• Gears of War
• Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
• Guitar Hero 3
• Mass Effect
• Rock Band

Soon enough, I'll be posting some initial reactions and more detailed reviews of some (if not all) of these games.  But for now I'm just psyched to finally have my next-gen console!

So I was bored last week during my time waiting for jury duty, so I concocted this site pretty much in about an hour or so.  Pretty simple and straightforward, learned a big about jquery and am happy with the end product.

Check it out if you want - http://www.bitch20.com

D: Darren Lynn Bousman
S: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Betsy Russell, Lyriq Bent

The latest installment of the Saw franchise picks up where the last left off, almost immediately in fact.  Jigsaw is dead (sorry for the spoiler), but his games are not over.  During the autopsy of Jigsaw, a cassette tape is found in his stomach that begins the process of a new, posthumous game of cat and mouse, life and death.  The players this time are the police officers who have been spending the last years of their career tracking down the serial killer.  Sergeant Rigg is the primary actor, and it is his inability to allow others make their own choices and decisions that has driven his choice as the latest victim of Jigsaw.

What makes this perhaps the most interesting, unique, and intense of the series is the manner in which all of the history of Jigsaw is intertwined with the current story being told.  We find out a lot more about what drove Jigsaw to start his murderous games, while at the same time being presented with different views of the events of the "present" and the events of Saw 3.  It's a little distracting at first, and it takes a few inter-takes to really "get" what is going on.  By the end, you not only see the results of Jigsaw's latest test, but you understand exactly how it ties in with prior events.  The time shifting in this film is perhaps not only the most effective that I've seen in many years, but the payoff at the end is quite impressive.

As with the other Saw movies, there's not much detail you can dive into without ruining the basic storyline of the movie.  Plus, much of the drama and intensity is visual - the traps, the games, and the sequences that Jigsaw's victims must work through are difficult to distill down to mere words.  And, as with each outing in the series, the violence and gore are amped up yet again for this outing.  The traps are more vicious, more devious, and definitely more dangerous in this latest installment.  It is definitely a worthy installment in this series, and it leaves the door open to the next one, which will undoubtedly wind up hitting us around Halloween of 2008.

D: Darren Lynn Bousman
S: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus MacFadyen, Bahar Soomekh

Saw 3 sees Jigsaw's endgame come to fruition.  Bedridden and near death due to the cancer that has ravaged his body, Jigsaw kidnaps a doctor with the intention of using her skills to keep him alive long enough to see what should be his final game come to fruition.  While many of the other movies in the series focused on a single character or set of characters, working through a single game to determine whether or not they are worthy of life, Saw 3 shows just how devious Jigsaw truly is, intertwining three "tests" into a single penultimate game.  True to form, the violence is amped up from either of the previous installments, and the blood and gore flies rather freely.

The different levels in this movie are what really separate it from the prior installments, and what makes this truly a more significant and impressive outing than Saw 2 (which was, I think, the worst so far).  It focuses more on the psychological terror that Jigsaw uses against his victims.  Certainly, the machinations are important, but it's always the "game" that drives the plot, not just the gruesome deaths.  Here, we see the history behind the first movie, the interactions that Amanda had with the victims from the first film.  However, we find out that she has broken Jigsaw's rules, and this is a key to the story - though she doesn't realize it, this set of tests is as much about her as it is the other participants.

The primary story, however, focuses on Jeff, a depressed father whose son was killed by a drunk driver.  He watched as the justice system did nothing, and felt impotent and helpless, while fantasizing about revenge, killing the drunk driver himself among other things.  He is given the opportunity to learn the power of forgiveness and redemption, and is presented with three people crucial in the events that led to his son's death: the bystander who did nothing to save him, the judge whose leniency let the driver off with little consequence, and ultimately the drunk driver himself.  Finally, he comes upon Jigsaw himself, and it is this moment that turns everyone's world around.

There's enough new in this installment that it doesn't suffer from the usual dilution that many movie series such as this sometimes do.  There's also enough insight into the mind of Jigsaw that it pushes things forward on multiple levels, not just the few moments of clarity that result in the prior movies.  There's really not a lot to say about this particular installment - it's another in a series of perhaps the most consistent, bloody, and intense movies that has ever been made.  It delivers on the promise of the prior films, and expands the "mythology" that binds all of the films together.  If you are a fan of the Saw series, I suppose you've probably already seen this, but if you're not, it would be highly recommended, particularly if you were turned off somewhat by the "slasher-film" feel of the second movie.

D: George Ratcliff
S: Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga, Jacob Kogan

I had really high hopes for this movie, making the mistake again of listening to some of the reviews on Ain't It Cool News.  I was expecting a deep psychological thriller, where you're never sure whether the title character is truly evil, or if he's just in the wrong place at the wrong times.  I was hoping for something bringing back memories of Let's Scare Jessica to Death, or perhaps the original The Omen.  Unfortunately, what this movie delivers is more along the lines of a bad made-for-cable movie.  It's hack work, that wastes not only a great premise, but a decent cast as well.

The premise is simple - young Joshua is a brilliant and gifted boy, whose family is changed by the arrival of a new baby.  His mother suffered from severe post-partum depression when Joshua was born, to the point of hospitalization, and it is everyone's fear that she may succumb to it a second time, with the arrival of her new child.  His father is a successful stockbroker whose job takes more of his life than his family.  And Joshua himself is a challenge, a young man with abilities, knowledge, and reasoning that far outstrip not only his age, but the abilities of those around him as well. 

Were this the movie it should have been, the family would slowly deteriorate, as hints are laid to the mother's descent into what we are led to assume to be a second bout of post-partum depression.   His father would seem overwrought and overstretched by trying to balance the work that pays for their lifestyle and the increasing demands of his home life as the mother's sanity seems to slip.  The other characters would be placed in situations that are ambiguous, where it's never entirely clear what happened, what the causes were, or even what some of the long-term effects are.  Joshua would be present, but never definitively an actor.  Unfortunately, this is not that movie.

Instead, we're presented with what can only really be described as a character study of a youthful sociopath.  Young Joshua is clearly and plainly the cause of much of the strife and danger in this movie, and as such it fails completely to be intriguing, interesting, or compelling.  This is really a lifeless movie, and when the final "reveal" takes place as to the motives that have driven the events of the movie, it's more a relief that it's all over than it is anything remarkable or insightful.  It's really a shame, since the premise shows so much promise...but the execution is rather pathetic.