Mafia 2 Review
Well, the Mafia 2 Review is in the books over at Associated Content. Check out the Mafia II Review – “Family” is Thicker Than Blood article, and please share your thoughts on the game and feedback on the article. Although the overall scores for the game are good, and praise for the Mafia II Soundtrack in particular has been high, there seems to be a fairly large faction of gamers who are “hating” on the game. I attribute it to the ADD instant-gratification segment of gamers out there who wanted to just run around and murder prostitutes. The ones who can’t be bothered to pay attention to that nuisance know as a narrative.
Valhalla Rising
Saw a movie this weekend at Cinema 21 that could only be described as interesting at best. Valhalla Rising is a nordic/viking tale starring Mads Mikkelsen (great name). You may remembers Mads as the villain in the first Daniel Craig Bond flick, Casino 
Royale. Mads doesn’t say a word through the whole film which is ridiculously light on dialogue. Valhalla Rising is all about mood and imagery and indeed the cinematography is wonderful. The music I would describe as atmospheric in it’s deep base and tonal approach, but becomes overbearing and repetitive at points.
I appreciate what they were trying to do here, but it ended up being a waste of time and money. I wouldn’t recommend this, particularly to the average movie-goer who may see the poster and expect a super action-based Viking war. While Mads kicks ass when he needs to the action scenes are not nearly enough to balance out the slow, surreal pacing of Valhalla Rising
Well kiddos, I was lucky (or unlucky) enough to receive Kane & Lynch 2 Dog Days from Gamefly on the week of launch release. The game came in the mail and I promptly went and beat the game. I had heard tales of the single player being ridiculously short. Those reports were not in any way mistaken as it took less than 5 hours to complete the single player campaign. Not so good Al….
Fallout 4 Preview Updates
I originally had The Warlords in my queue at the same time as Red Cliff (the full 2-movie version). That was a little too much war and Chinese history for the same week so I staggered them slightly. While featuring several of the same actors, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro The Warlords is a different film than the Red Cliff series. While Red Cliff was a more poetic and showcased a vibrant palette, The Warlords has a decidedly muted tone and make strong use of grain to achieve it’s mood. The combat depicted in the films are also highly contrasted. Red Cliff made use of that palette and extended the artistic nature of the film into combat, with Dynasty-Warriors (video-game) style battles featuring wire-work and outrageous movement. The Warlords is more visceral and up-close; with some fairly gory moments.
the weekend. I have never read the books, but hope to do so after seeing the first film. My understanding is that will be two more in-line with the books. The core of the movie is a 40 year old murder mystery within a prominent Swedish business family. The real heart however are in the complicated main characters of Michael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander played by Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace respectively.
