We've always loved Stephen King's stories and movies. Our father has been a big fan of his stuff for a long time. So since we couldn't find anywhere close to rent this movie, we went ahead and bought it. We watched it last night, and here's what I think.
The movie starts off showing the main character (Tom Jane) painting an image of Roland, a rose, and the Tower, from the Dark Tower Books by Stephen King. And that was really cool. Anyway. We liked the movie a lot. It was a little old school, but it still felt new and original.
The directing was just right. The creatures were cool and creepy. The dialog was very realistic, and the acting was good. Thomas Jane did the best acting i think I've seen him do. The effects were a little cheesy but realistic. And the ending was unexpected, a little unrealistic, but still shocking.
Re-watch Value: Good
Ruling: 8.5 out of 10
- Stefan
Mar 31, 2008
The Mist (our father's review)
This is a guest post from Treadstone 71. I am going to review The Mist . I really liked the movie I thought that the gore and effects were really on point . They were kind of old school cheesy but just the right amount of blood. I also thought that the creatures were cool and creepy especially the spiders coming out of the M P. in the pharmacy scene. The ending was sad however I think it was better than just having the people go into the mist and the movie ending there. More reviews to come from Treadstone 71. The mist
Re-watch Value: Good
Ruling: 8.5 out of 10
- Jack
Re-watch Value: Good
Ruling: 8.5 out of 10
- Jack
Mar 24, 2008
Oblivion 4
Ok, we're not much for RPGs but this one got our attention. Re read good reviews about it and we finally got it hoping for a good roam-around type game with swords and bows and lots of stuff to do. Boy did we get that and much, much more.
Not only are there weapons but you can enchant them with for own created enchantments! Not only is there a place to roam around in, but it's huge and full of awesome nature scenery. You can also create a character and choose just about every thing about them.
Me and my brother have each created our own characters on different profiles and each of us has taken different paths and quests and there's still so much more to do. Joey has gotten to Listener level in the Dark Brotherhood, and I have gotten to Master level in the fighters guild.
The action is descent and at times a bit frustrating and repetitive but real time, which is a good thing. The quests are most of the times similar but pretty diverse. We really like this game but it does take a long time to do things on it.
Replay value: Very Good
Ruling: 9 out of 10
- Stefan
Not only are there weapons but you can enchant them with for own created enchantments! Not only is there a place to roam around in, but it's huge and full of awesome nature scenery. You can also create a character and choose just about every thing about them.
Me and my brother have each created our own characters on different profiles and each of us has taken different paths and quests and there's still so much more to do. Joey has gotten to Listener level in the Dark Brotherhood, and I have gotten to Master level in the fighters guild.
The action is descent and at times a bit frustrating and repetitive but real time, which is a good thing. The quests are most of the times similar but pretty diverse. We really like this game but it does take a long time to do things on it.
Replay value: Very Good
Ruling: 9 out of 10
- Stefan
Mar 23, 2008
Call of Doody 4
10 out of 10 Official Xbox Magazine! WHAT! Ok, that's really pushing it.
We bought this game and discovered it was NOT all the glory it was said to be. There is no split-screen co-op, no realistic cambering of rounds, no ability to stop the stupid typical blaring music, no ability to change the weapons rate of fire, and only one air strike killing mission, WHAT! The action is Call of Dutyish, alright. The story, well there is none. A good play around type game, that's all.
Replay value: Descent
Ruling: 7.9 out of 10
-Stefan
We bought this game and discovered it was NOT all the glory it was said to be. There is no split-screen co-op, no realistic cambering of rounds, no ability to stop the stupid typical blaring music, no ability to change the weapons rate of fire, and only one air strike killing mission, WHAT! The action is Call of Dutyish, alright. The story, well there is none. A good play around type game, that's all.
Replay value: Descent
Ruling: 7.9 out of 10
-Stefan
Rainbow
The Rainbow six series has always been our favorite series in all of video games. We're all for realism and tactical shooters, and Rainbow takes the cake. As a kid I loved playing Rainbow Six on the Nintendo 64 with Stefan. Then as years passed we went on to the Xbox, and..
Rainbow Six: 3. This is the first game I remember playing and being completely amazed. The graphics were top notch (and still are, compared to some games released today), the action was intense, realistic and loud. The large selection of weapons were incredibly modeled, and the reloading of their magazines have never been beat by any other game, in terms of realism. The map designs were very diverse and gritty. On one map there is Opera music playing over some speakers within a tropical estate type building. In any other game this may have came off as comedic, in this, it only added to the cold hearted feeling that you are a killer; tactically moving through this house, commanding your team, and leaving a bloody mess in your path. The only downside is there was no co-op, split screen play, for me and my bro.
Replay value: Excellent
Ruling: 9.2 out of 10
Rainbow Six: 3 Black Arrow. Now this one was made about a year or so after RS:3. Stefan and I first saw an advertisement in a magazine about this game, which showed a small screenshot of some split-screen action, which hyped us up. Well we got it when it came out, and to our horror you couldn't see your weapons when playing the co-op. But we tried to ignore it and find other things to amuse us. That only led to the discovery of worse graphics, and bad map design, that kind of made us depressed feeling. So we returned it after a while, and returned to playing RS:3.
Replay value: Sorta good
Ruling: 6.3 out of 10
Rainbow Six: Lockdown. (Not made by the same team as RS:3) I'm going to sum this up in one sentence. A horrible nightmare of cheapness.
Replay Value: None
Ruling: 1 out of 10
Rainbow Six: Critical hour. Pretty much the same as Lockdown, but with old Rainbow Six music to try and make it feel more tactical. It didn't work.
Same as Lockdown
Rainbow Six: Vegas. (Made by the RS:3 team) In the utter embarrassment of Lockdown and Critical hour they try to make up for them with a new revamped Rainbow Six game, for next-gen consoles. It worked. The action, weapons, tactics, and sounds are great, and you CAN see your weapons on the spit-screen co-op! The level designs are ok, but a bit too repetitive. The ability to take cover behind stuff and going to a third person view works well. We had loads of fun on this until this newest one came out...
Replay Value: Very Good
Ruling: 8.9 out of 10
Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. I know, the title is a bit cheap, but the game is going pretty good. The addition of the P.E.C (persistent-elite-creation) to the single player, and co-op really help this game a ton. And the level design (although repetitive) is fun, and more open that Vegas 1. The newly added weapons are a bit cheap, but cool. But there is this one reading animation that is VERY cheap where your character takes a mag out and puts another one in very stiffly, ok, but then he hits it again with NO SOUND EFFECT ADDED!!! AAHHHH!!.. sorry. We are almost finished with the campaign, and are on a very cool, tropical map that is refreshing after the mazes of Vegas buildings. So, I will put the verdict up for this one when we are done with it.
Cya then.
OK, we just finished it and it was pretty good. At the end there was a battle between you and a helecopter that was tough, and very skippy, and glitchy. But it was still good fun.
Replay value: quite good
Ruling: 8.8 out of 10
- Joey
Rainbow Six: 3. This is the first game I remember playing and being completely amazed. The graphics were top notch (and still are, compared to some games released today), the action was intense, realistic and loud. The large selection of weapons were incredibly modeled, and the reloading of their magazines have never been beat by any other game, in terms of realism. The map designs were very diverse and gritty. On one map there is Opera music playing over some speakers within a tropical estate type building. In any other game this may have came off as comedic, in this, it only added to the cold hearted feeling that you are a killer; tactically moving through this house, commanding your team, and leaving a bloody mess in your path. The only downside is there was no co-op, split screen play, for me and my bro.
Replay value: Excellent
Ruling: 9.2 out of 10
Rainbow Six: 3 Black Arrow. Now this one was made about a year or so after RS:3. Stefan and I first saw an advertisement in a magazine about this game, which showed a small screenshot of some split-screen action, which hyped us up. Well we got it when it came out, and to our horror you couldn't see your weapons when playing the co-op. But we tried to ignore it and find other things to amuse us. That only led to the discovery of worse graphics, and bad map design, that kind of made us depressed feeling. So we returned it after a while, and returned to playing RS:3.
Replay value: Sorta good
Ruling: 6.3 out of 10
Rainbow Six: Lockdown. (Not made by the same team as RS:3) I'm going to sum this up in one sentence. A horrible nightmare of cheapness.
Replay Value: None
Ruling: 1 out of 10
Rainbow Six: Critical hour. Pretty much the same as Lockdown, but with old Rainbow Six music to try and make it feel more tactical. It didn't work.
Same as Lockdown
Rainbow Six: Vegas. (Made by the RS:3 team) In the utter embarrassment of Lockdown and Critical hour they try to make up for them with a new revamped Rainbow Six game, for next-gen consoles. It worked. The action, weapons, tactics, and sounds are great, and you CAN see your weapons on the spit-screen co-op! The level designs are ok, but a bit too repetitive. The ability to take cover behind stuff and going to a third person view works well. We had loads of fun on this until this newest one came out...
Replay Value: Very Good
Ruling: 8.9 out of 10
Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. I know, the title is a bit cheap, but the game is going pretty good. The addition of the P.E.C (persistent-elite-creation) to the single player, and co-op really help this game a ton. And the level design (although repetitive) is fun, and more open that Vegas 1. The newly added weapons are a bit cheap, but cool. But there is this one reading animation that is VERY cheap where your character takes a mag out and puts another one in very stiffly, ok, but then he hits it again with NO SOUND EFFECT ADDED!!! AAHHHH!!.. sorry. We are almost finished with the campaign, and are on a very cool, tropical map that is refreshing after the mazes of Vegas buildings. So, I will put the verdict up for this one when we are done with it.
Cya then.
OK, we just finished it and it was pretty good. At the end there was a battle between you and a helecopter that was tough, and very skippy, and glitchy. But it was still good fun.
Replay value: quite good
Ruling: 8.8 out of 10
- Joey
Halo 3
Alright, I'll start off by saying we love the first Halo and still play it a little to this day, just because, in our opinion, they haven't made a Halo game that surpasses it.
But, this is about Halo 3 so... The first time we played it, and shot the weapons we literally took it out, and started playing Rainbow Six Vegas again, because of how quiet and NON realistic they were, which is a huge down side to us. But later we gave it another shot and tried to ignore the bad weapons as best we could. The action is good and there are some cool moments that leave you saying: "That was cool." But there are no new aliens, and you STILL have to kill those darn veggie people again, which really gets annoying.
While the areas/maps are quite open and in some nature (which is great), it still feels like your being forced on a track to much. There are some new weapons, and new vehicles that are pretty cool. In Co-op campaign player 2 plays as the Arbiter, which is cool but, in my opinion adds nothing to the story, besides the fact that the Elites have teamed up with the humans (man-kind).
We found the game to be much more enjoyable when we played our own music from our hard-drive, and then paused the music so that no music was playing in the background. We found it funny how it said something like: "Hey! your playing music! This could take away from the experience of this game!" HA! have you ever thought about not putting any stupid music over top and making the game and battle loud, intense, gritty, and realistic! Now that would be next-gen. But instead they didn't change the game-play one bit. What a shame.
So, if you like the Halo games (like us) yeah, id say buy it if you want, It's definitely better that Halo 2, and has a lot more to it than i discussed. Also the ending is, well, expected in a way, but pretty cool. And you'll probably play through the campaign more than once because it's a decently fun game.
Replay value: Good
Ruling: 8 out of 10
-Stefan
But, this is about Halo 3 so... The first time we played it, and shot the weapons we literally took it out, and started playing Rainbow Six Vegas again, because of how quiet and NON realistic they were, which is a huge down side to us. But later we gave it another shot and tried to ignore the bad weapons as best we could. The action is good and there are some cool moments that leave you saying: "That was cool." But there are no new aliens, and you STILL have to kill those darn veggie people again, which really gets annoying.
While the areas/maps are quite open and in some nature (which is great), it still feels like your being forced on a track to much. There are some new weapons, and new vehicles that are pretty cool. In Co-op campaign player 2 plays as the Arbiter, which is cool but, in my opinion adds nothing to the story, besides the fact that the Elites have teamed up with the humans (man-kind).
We found the game to be much more enjoyable when we played our own music from our hard-drive, and then paused the music so that no music was playing in the background. We found it funny how it said something like: "Hey! your playing music! This could take away from the experience of this game!" HA! have you ever thought about not putting any stupid music over top and making the game and battle loud, intense, gritty, and realistic! Now that would be next-gen. But instead they didn't change the game-play one bit. What a shame.
So, if you like the Halo games (like us) yeah, id say buy it if you want, It's definitely better that Halo 2, and has a lot more to it than i discussed. Also the ending is, well, expected in a way, but pretty cool. And you'll probably play through the campaign more than once because it's a decently fun game.
Replay value: Good
Ruling: 8 out of 10
-Stefan
Mar 14, 2008
No Country for Old Men
We've heard a lot about No Country for Old Men, and everyone said it was a good movie. So we rented yesterday and watched it. And I have to say it was pretty good.
I'll have to admit some of the killings were a little cheap looking and the acting of some of the victims was not good. But on the other hand, the rest of the killings were pretty cool. The first one is pretty intense but after seeing the Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum fight scenes, it's nothing I haven't seen done better. The bad guys acting was good and the other actors were good. The story seems simple yet complex at the same time somehow.
There is some dialog that made us laugh which makes it hard to place the Genre of this movie, it's part comedy, part drama, part Thriller, part crime mystery.
The area the movie takes place in [Texas Desert] is nice and interesting. Also the movie does not have a lot of music which makes it more intense and realistic, and were happy about that!
It's based off of a book so we may buy the book and see how it matches up.
Re-watch value: Good
Ruling: 8 out of 10
- Stefan
I'll have to admit some of the killings were a little cheap looking and the acting of some of the victims was not good. But on the other hand, the rest of the killings were pretty cool. The first one is pretty intense but after seeing the Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum fight scenes, it's nothing I haven't seen done better. The bad guys acting was good and the other actors were good. The story seems simple yet complex at the same time somehow.
There is some dialog that made us laugh which makes it hard to place the Genre of this movie, it's part comedy, part drama, part Thriller, part crime mystery.
The area the movie takes place in [Texas Desert] is nice and interesting. Also the movie does not have a lot of music which makes it more intense and realistic, and were happy about that!
It's based off of a book so we may buy the book and see how it matches up.
Re-watch value: Good
Ruling: 8 out of 10
- Stefan
Mar 3, 2008
I am not legend.
(This post contains spoilers. so if you haven't read the book, please do so, but do it after you see the movie, cause you will just be disappointed.)
If you have read the book, I Am Legend, then you probably are wandering if the screenwriters for the recent movie with the same name did as well.
I'm pretty sure this was their process..
"We need to write I Am Legend into a movie. Should we read the book?" .. "Yes!" They start to read the book .. "OK, his name is Robert Neville, he is blond headed and blue eyed!".. "I think I have an idea for the role of Neville!!!" .. "who?" .. "Will Smith!!!" .. "why?" .. "Cause he will get this movie the most money." .. "HEY! I have an idea also! Lets not read this!!" .. "You are so right."
OK, done with that.
What sounds more interesting to you?-
[1- He gave a vile of cured blood to another uninfected human, and her uninfected son, going to an uninfected group of people in Vermont, and then blows himself up with a hand-grenade. He is their legend.]
[2- He looked out over the new people of the earth. He knew he did not belong to them, he knew that, like the vampires, he was anathema and black terror to be destroyed. And, abruptly, the concept came, amusing to him even in his pain.
A coughing chuckle filled his throat. he turned and leaned against the wall while he swallowed the pills. Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend.]
Movie- I am infected. I loose my hair and my mouth grows wide. i also can now jump higher, run quicker, and throw full grown men with my mouth.
OK. The movie wasn't bad, it had some emotional, well acted scenes, but here is what we are trying to tell you. The book purely translated into a movie would have been a film beyond amazing. Instead, it was turned into a greed-hole that erases any hope of ever seeing the book to film soon. We personally think we would be a good choice to write and direct it if it ever happens, just to ensure that no greed is involved.
The book sucks you in and forces you to finish, and you like it the whole way. It's intense, interesting, emotional, and a classic that even today, hold its own. It is written in a way that still sounds gritty and modern. The character of Neville is tough, relatible, and perfect for the story. You'll be coming back and reading it over and over even after your done. A true masterpiece.
Movie: Re-watch value: Descent
Ruling: 6.7 out of 10
Book: Reread value: Excellent
Ruling: 9.2 out of 10
- Joey and Stefan
If you have read the book, I Am Legend, then you probably are wandering if the screenwriters for the recent movie with the same name did as well.
I'm pretty sure this was their process..
"We need to write I Am Legend into a movie. Should we read the book?" .. "Yes!" They start to read the book .. "OK, his name is Robert Neville, he is blond headed and blue eyed!".. "I think I have an idea for the role of Neville!!!" .. "who?" .. "Will Smith!!!" .. "why?" .. "Cause he will get this movie the most money." .. "HEY! I have an idea also! Lets not read this!!" .. "You are so right."
OK, done with that.
What sounds more interesting to you?-
[1- He gave a vile of cured blood to another uninfected human, and her uninfected son, going to an uninfected group of people in Vermont, and then blows himself up with a hand-grenade. He is their legend.]
[2- He looked out over the new people of the earth. He knew he did not belong to them, he knew that, like the vampires, he was anathema and black terror to be destroyed. And, abruptly, the concept came, amusing to him even in his pain.
A coughing chuckle filled his throat. he turned and leaned against the wall while he swallowed the pills. Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend.]
Movie- I am infected. I loose my hair and my mouth grows wide. i also can now jump higher, run quicker, and throw full grown men with my mouth.
OK. The movie wasn't bad, it had some emotional, well acted scenes, but here is what we are trying to tell you. The book purely translated into a movie would have been a film beyond amazing. Instead, it was turned into a greed-hole that erases any hope of ever seeing the book to film soon. We personally think we would be a good choice to write and direct it if it ever happens, just to ensure that no greed is involved.
The book sucks you in and forces you to finish, and you like it the whole way. It's intense, interesting, emotional, and a classic that even today, hold its own. It is written in a way that still sounds gritty and modern. The character of Neville is tough, relatible, and perfect for the story. You'll be coming back and reading it over and over even after your done. A true masterpiece.
Movie: Re-watch value: Descent
Ruling: 6.7 out of 10
Book: Reread value: Excellent
Ruling: 9.2 out of 10
- Joey and Stefan
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