Here are some very short impressions of Hancock, a movie I saw last night.
Hancock (Will Smith) is a disgruntled superhero who makes it his duty to save people and piss them off at the same time. When he saves the life of marketing consultant Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), Embrey decides to return the favor by changing Hancock's image and make him a model superhero.
Not the best, but certainly not the worst.
Contrary to popular consent, I quite enjoyed this movie. Granted, I also enjoyed Last Action Hero when it was released, while most people bashed it into the ground. However, there are some staggering problems with the movie. The tone changes drastically from a comedy to a drama and then to an action movie. Although Will Smith's acting is, once again, very impressive, it would've been wiser to gently slip from one tone to the other, instead of crashing headlong into them. I won't delve too much into the story so not to spoil it for anybody but, although the concept was a great idea, the execution is flawed. When they finally reveal Hancock's origins, I just went "Wait... what?" The lack of a vilain throughout the movie is also another strike.
Although these flaw s might appear to be tremendous, the final product isn't half bad. Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron are pretty good in their roles, although Bateman feels out of place when it comes to the dramatic sequences. It's a good popcorn movie, although seeing it at a movie theater would be a waste of money. My nephew's new addiction. Tonight, I'm he ading to the theater to see The Dark Knight in all it's big screen glory.
My nephew dusted off my Nintendo 64 and played some Mario Kart 64 this morning. Kid's pretty good actually. He finished first in most of the races he ran.
That's all for today. Have a great one Bombers!
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As most of you know, I started a website about 3 weeks ago. Strangely, since that time, my interest in gaming has diminished to the point where it is almost non-existent. In fact, Rock Band is pretty much the only game I've played in that period of time.
The Force Unleashed + Vader on Kashyyyk = Win.
I wanted to buy Civilization Revolution, but I didn't. I wanted to buy games for my laptop, such as Crysis & World In Conflict, but I didn't. I'm approximately 30 minutes away from finishing Battlefield Bad Company, but I have absolutely no interest in doing so, only because the game bores me half to death. The game is good, but not enough to keep me interested. Most of the time, I'll just look at my 360 and go "Meh... I'll do something else instead". Some hardcore gamer I am, eh? I think the lack of good games is what's killing my interest in gaming right now. Although I'd like to give Civ Rev a spin, I'm not excited about it. In fact, I'm not excited about any game in the near future. I have to look to September to find a game that has me hyped, and that game is The Force Unleashed. Maybe that'll get me back into the swing of things. Until then, I guess I'll just strum my plastic guitar.
Back to the website. Let me take the time to thank Mr Art Green for his incredible contribution there, as he's been our news hound ever since the site launched. Some people have said that he seems to be the only one contributing, which is rather insulting for the rest of us. You have to keep in mind that Nate, Aram and I all have jobs that take a lot of our time. Art is on summer vacation from school, which frees him up for other stuff. He was also appointed to the news section of the site so, obviously, he's got a lot to cover every day. As for myself, I also have a house, a family life and a social life to juggle along with the site. When I get home from work, I don't necessarily feel like writing a review or an editorial, since I'm usually dead tired from my day. I do have a Bad Company review on the way, as well as an editorial on PC gaming, in which every member of the staff will give their own input. We're doing our best and I know most of you appreciate it.
Meh.Only 5 more days before my vacation! I'll be bringing my laptop along for the ride, but I won't be getting a camcorder like I said I would, simply because my finances do not permit me to do so and that I think it would be a useless expense, since I'd only use it for the trip. I'll have a digital camera though, so I should be able to post some pictures in my blogs. During my vacation, it'll be a great time to continue Mass Effect, a game I haven't touched in over a month.
Nonetheless, the weekend is here, so go out there and have a great one.
An Unforgettable Movie.James Dean. River Phoenix. Heath Ledger. Three men who left us way too early. Three talented actors who could transform a good movie into a memorable one.
Although his performance in Brokeback Mountain was something to behold, Heath Ledger's disturbingly stellar portrayal of The Joker, which sadly turned out to be his final curtain call, will no doubt go down as his best. Without Ledger, The Dark Knight would have been just a regular superhero movie. He brings new life to this twisted anarchist character, as he wrecks havoc on the people of Gotham and proves that everybody has a dark side when pushed to the extreme, even the heroic Batman. Without a shadow of a doubt, Heath's disturbing rendition of The Joker will forever be remembered as one of the best acting performances in motion picture history.
The story in The Dark Knight is quite good, as it holds many twists and turns which will have you guessing until the very end. After instilling fear into the corrupt criminals of Gotham with his own brand of vigilante justice, Batman (Christian Bale) gets some unexpected help from up-and-coming district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman) as they struggle to stop an anarchist madman known only as The Joker (Ledger). Aside from Heath's stellar acting, the rest of this stand-out cast does deliver. The exquisite Michael Caine reprises his role as Alfred Pennyworth with brilliance. Also returning for this sequel is the superb Morgan Freeman, who does a great job as Lucious Fox. Although I still think Michael Keaton was the best Batman ever, Christian Bale does a decent job as the Caped Crusader. The only thing that annoys me is his voice when he'sdoning the cape and mask. I don't know if his suit is too tight or if he's always out of breath but, even when he's talking to Lucious or Alfred, he uses that voice. Don't they know who he is? Another thing is New York... err, I mean Gotham City. I preferred Tim Burton's Gotham to Christopher Nolan's.
The Dark Knight blends action, comedy and suspense seamlessly to provide two and a half (!!) hours of magic. Many people will agree that Heath Ledger turned this movie from good to amazing, and I couldn't agree more. On the other hand, you have those who will say that Jack Nicholson's portrayal of The Purple One was better. Although Nicholson is one of my favorite actors, and that I agree his performance was Oscar worthy, I just have to tip my hat to Ledger. He represents a vile Joker of comic book folklore, the anarchist, the crazed lunatic, the psychopath, and he does it so well that it just sends chills down your spine. No matter if you're into comic book superheroes or not, you just need to see this movie to witness one of the best acting performances in recent memory.
Oh, and you'll never look at a pencil the same way again either.
I know this isn't a video game related blog but, right now, I really do not care. I watched about 90 minutes of The Dark Knight last night and will watch the remainder of it tonight. Yeah, I'm a filthy fucking pirate... like you guys have never done this before in your lives. Don't worry, I will go see the movie in theaters this Saturday, but the hype was just too strong for me to be holding out any longer.
I'll give my impressions on this marvelous movie tomorrow. As for today, I just wanted to say that Heath Ledger's acting performance as The Joker (duh!) is not only mind-blowing, it is also mind-numbing. A flawlessly well-executed delight, which gave me chills and left me wanting more. He gives new meaning to the word "lunatic" and, let's just say that I'll never look at a pencil the same way again. While Jack Nicholson's Joker was awesome, Heath's is majestic. It's a damn shame he left us so soon. He had such a bright future ahead of him.
Nonetheless, if you haven't seen this movie yet, I strongly suggest you do, if not only for Heath Ledger's performance in it. If he doesn't win an Oscar for his performance, I'll be in shock.
This game is missing, yo.As I was browsing through this wonderful website and adding games to my lists, I noticed that one of my most anticipated games of 2008 was missing from the site. That game is NHL 09, from EA Sports. It surprised me at first, since most gaming publications touted it's predecessor, NHL 08, as the best sports game of 2007.
So, what does your friendly neighborhood DBoy do? Well, he submits a request to the kind folks at Giant Bomb for them to create the game page, of course. When it's up and running, everybody will be able to add pictures and information and whatnot. That's what so cool about this website. We help in creating the content.
With that said, I'm off to watch The Dark Knight, finally. Won't say "how" I am watching it though. ;) 30 Comments
Some of you might know me as NeoJedi on "another site", but most of you know me simply as Denis. DBoy has been my nickname for the longest time and it's pretty cool that I could choose it as a username on this site.
Speaking of "this site", I'm very proud to be a part of it. I've been waiting for the longest time for Giant Bomb to launch so I could bask in the greatness that are Jeff, Ryan, Vinny & Brad. I have the utmost respect for all of those guys, and I just know that this site will be an explosive success (pun intended). Will I keep blogging on "that other site"? Yeah, for a while anyway. We'll then see what the future brings.
So good luck to everybody on Giant Bomb, and let's build a fantastic community here!
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