This one starts off about gaming but secretly it is all films.
I've ordered StarCraft- and Left 4 Dead-2. While there are some single player games way off in the distance that I'm looking forward to (the second Dragon Age and the third Mass Effect and Fable) most of my gaming wants at the moment are focused around multiplayer. It's odd; this is probably the first time in my life this has happened. Gaming with friends is fun, sure, but gaming has always been something to do when friends weren't around. Video gaming, that is. Pen and Paper never quite worked when it was just you on your own. I'm looking at you, Fighting Fantasy.
I had most of them, the Fighting Fantasy books. I had Titan, Out of the Pit and the RPG trilogy Dungeoneer, Blacksand and Allansia as well. For games I never played, I was pretty obsessed. I'd read them as puzzle books, automatically winning every fight, just trying to guess all the turnings correctly. I remember the smell of them so clearly. Most of them came from charity shops and were ten years old by the time I got them. Since they were all I read I don't associate the scent of old books with them, rather the other way round.
When I went off to uni most of them returned to the charity shops from whence they came, but I think I've still got a few back in Romsey. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Battleblade Warrior or Fangs of Fury, maybe. Legend of Zagor almost certainly. I never liked any of the sci-fi ones that much and really disliked the odd horror ones they did, like House of Hell.
But yeah, mulitplayer gaming. I'm even considering getting The Old Republic, the new Star Wars MMO when it's released. But that's probably more to do with it being Bioware than it being Massively Multiplayer. Now we're going to talk films for the rest of the post.
This year we had The Losers, The Expendables and The A-Team, which are all pretty similar films. World's Best Military Unit gets betrayed by the CIA.
You can give The Expendables a miss. If you've seen Judge Dredd or Demolition Man, you've seen better Sylvester Stallone. He's at his best when you're not meant to take him seriously. If you've seen Hero or Fearless you've seen better Jet Li. He's at his best when the movie centres on him fighting. If you've seen Death Race or The Transporter series you've seen bet- well, you've seen the same Jason Staham. He's probably the only actor in the film not disappointing in their part. The film is not a bad action movie in any sense, it's just that so much more could have been done with it.
The A-Team is fun. A sequel would hopefully be better. Too much time is spent introducing the A-Team. I and everyone else who would want to watch an A-Team movie already knows who the characters are and what the A-Team is about. That said, the film is fun and the new actors - even Rampage Jackson - all fit well in their roles.
The Losers is the only one I'm buying on DVD though. The Losers is great. It has Columbus Short who I really want to make it big and Chris Evans, who I like more every time I see him. The Losers got the least hype and did the worst at the box office and easily makes it into my top ten for the year so far.
(In no order: Whip It, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Toy Story 3, The Losers, Robin Hood, Kick Ass, Inception, The Brothers Bloom, Ponyo and one other that I can't decide on.)
(In rough but not finalised order: Inception, Toy Story 3, Kick Ass, The Brothers Bloom, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Robin Hood, The Losers, Whip It, Ponyo and that other one.)
I'm expecting the new Ryan Reynolds movie, Buried, to make the list, and maybe the Downey Jr. comedy Due Date though more and more I like comedies less and less. They're fine when I watch them the first time, but I can't see myself wanting Superbad or The Hangover on DVD. The only film I'd label as comedy that I've bought in the last couple of years I can think of is Role Models, and even that I've only watched when other people were around.
Despicable Me, The Social Network, Easy A, Tron Legacy and Black Swan are others I'm looking forward to. I guess Devil as well, but I don't have high hopes for it. M. Night Shyamalan is producing a trilogy of films regarding the supernatural in modern society. He's done the stories for them all, but not the script so there's some hope. This first one is about a group of five people trapped in a lift, and one of them may be the devil.
And now the latest True Blood has finished downloading so I'm going to go away now.
I had most of them, the Fighting Fantasy books. I had Titan, Out of the Pit and the RPG trilogy Dungeoneer, Blacksand and Allansia as well. For games I never played, I was pretty obsessed. I'd read them as puzzle books, automatically winning every fight, just trying to guess all the turnings correctly. I remember the smell of them so clearly. Most of them came from charity shops and were ten years old by the time I got them. Since they were all I read I don't associate the scent of old books with them, rather the other way round.
When I went off to uni most of them returned to the charity shops from whence they came, but I think I've still got a few back in Romsey. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Battleblade Warrior or Fangs of Fury, maybe. Legend of Zagor almost certainly. I never liked any of the sci-fi ones that much and really disliked the odd horror ones they did, like House of Hell.
But yeah, mulitplayer gaming. I'm even considering getting The Old Republic, the new Star Wars MMO when it's released. But that's probably more to do with it being Bioware than it being Massively Multiplayer. Now we're going to talk films for the rest of the post.
This year we had The Losers, The Expendables and The A-Team, which are all pretty similar films. World's Best Military Unit gets betrayed by the CIA.
You can give The Expendables a miss. If you've seen Judge Dredd or Demolition Man, you've seen better Sylvester Stallone. He's at his best when you're not meant to take him seriously. If you've seen Hero or Fearless you've seen better Jet Li. He's at his best when the movie centres on him fighting. If you've seen Death Race or The Transporter series you've seen bet- well, you've seen the same Jason Staham. He's probably the only actor in the film not disappointing in their part. The film is not a bad action movie in any sense, it's just that so much more could have been done with it.
The A-Team is fun. A sequel would hopefully be better. Too much time is spent introducing the A-Team. I and everyone else who would want to watch an A-Team movie already knows who the characters are and what the A-Team is about. That said, the film is fun and the new actors - even Rampage Jackson - all fit well in their roles.
The Losers is the only one I'm buying on DVD though. The Losers is great. It has Columbus Short who I really want to make it big and Chris Evans, who I like more every time I see him. The Losers got the least hype and did the worst at the box office and easily makes it into my top ten for the year so far.
(In no order: Whip It, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Toy Story 3, The Losers, Robin Hood, Kick Ass, Inception, The Brothers Bloom, Ponyo and one other that I can't decide on.)
(In rough but not finalised order: Inception, Toy Story 3, Kick Ass, The Brothers Bloom, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Robin Hood, The Losers, Whip It, Ponyo and that other one.)
I'm expecting the new Ryan Reynolds movie, Buried, to make the list, and maybe the Downey Jr. comedy Due Date though more and more I like comedies less and less. They're fine when I watch them the first time, but I can't see myself wanting Superbad or The Hangover on DVD. The only film I'd label as comedy that I've bought in the last couple of years I can think of is Role Models, and even that I've only watched when other people were around.
Despicable Me, The Social Network, Easy A, Tron Legacy and Black Swan are others I'm looking forward to. I guess Devil as well, but I don't have high hopes for it. M. Night Shyamalan is producing a trilogy of films regarding the supernatural in modern society. He's done the stories for them all, but not the script so there's some hope. This first one is about a group of five people trapped in a lift, and one of them may be the devil.
And now the latest True Blood has finished downloading so I'm going to go away now.