movie recommendations

[Fiach]

Thanks for clearing that up JRD, he's pretty good then.  :-X

[mandru]

The credits on Crossroads listed a guitar coach for Ralph Macchio and as to whether that was a playing coach or a looking good while faking it coach, I simply don't know.  What I do know is that playing the way he was represented in the movie is one skill set and being able to play that precisely while jumping around and dancing and mugging it up with an audience is a different level of difficulty.

[Binnatics]

I'm new to this topic. I allways had a snese of checking it out once, but damn; 301 replies WOW
But... I have two recommendations to add, so here we go:

The first is like a shot for open goal: Fast & Furious 5.

I've seen it yesterday in Cine and it ROCKS!!!

Anybody who likes fast cars, action, incredible stunts and amazing robberies: You must view thisone. I won't tell much about the story to be sure not to give too much away but here's an introduction:

Dom (Vin Diesel) has just recieved 25 to life and is being transported to jail. His family helps him escape with some... furious cars. They go to Rio Brasil and there they sign for one last job: stealing some fast cars from a train. What will happen next is marvellous, let me just tell that there's a June Truck (the ones they use in Paris-Dakar) involved.

Doing the job they find out that it's not about the cars... It's about an entire bussiness... And if they take over, they'll be free forever.

So they call in a crew from their street-racing-family and plan their goal; this is all much like Ocean's Eleven. Same striking personalities and humor, same way of planning. Oh, and it's not personal this time... it's just a 100 million dollar job  :o

That's is about the review, or I will give too much away. One last thing; meanwhile they're huntied by a DEA elite-group lead by the infamous Dwayne Johnson.

Check for yourself. After watching this movie you'll walk out of the theatre feeling god ;)

The second recommendation is the Movie "The Way Back".

This story takes place in 1940 and starts in a Siberian prison-camp. Most of you'll know about these working camps where the Russians used to keep their enemies of the state.
A bunch of guys plans an escape: They know that escaping the prison-ground is just the beginning, and they are prepared. But THEN: They have to make their way through the siberian toundra, the mongolian desert and the tibetan mountains. They start with 7, only 3 make it to tibet.
The movie is about grief, drift (don't want to use the word passion, anybody could use that word in a review), cruelty, the power of nature and forgiveness.
When you follow this group through this queeste you will feel the power of nature, allthough you're on your cough. You'll feel the point of giving up, and the relief of that moment, allthopugh you're in your comfortable chair with a good glass of wine next to you and whatever more confort around.
And in the end you'll feel forgiveness.

Somehow this movie grabs you, and won't take loose. You are just there.

That's it. Hope I convinced you to watch them. And when you did, let me know what you think of it  ;)

[Art Blade]

Because of the early games of Need For Speed (starting with "1" and I also played many sequels) I was interested in The Fast And The Furious and watched all sequels ever since. I'm already looking forward to F&F5, cheers  :) :-X

If you like humour, great actors, action and espionage all in the mix, then you're going to like RED (IMDb) (Retired, Extremely Dangerous), starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Karl Urban, John Malkovich, Brian Cox, Helen Mirren, Ernest Borgnine (minor role) and many more. The story? Who cares  :-() It's major entertainment  :-X

[Fiach]

FF5 is supposed to be great, I'm waiting for the Blue Ray version :)

The Way back, I didnt really like it, I think Colin Farrell is a great actor, who was very good in that film too, but I only made it about halfway through before I got bored. Maybe I should check it out again, seeing as you rate it so highly :)

[Fiach]

Because of the early games of Need For Speed (starting with "1" and I also played many sequels) I was interested in The Fast And The Furious and watched all sequels ever since. I'm already looking forward to F&F5, cheers  :) :-X

If you like humour, great actors, action and espionage all in the mix, then you're going to like RED (IMDb) (Retired, Extremely Dangerous), starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Karl Urban, John Malkovich, Brian Cox, Helen Mirren, Ernest Borgnine (minor role) and many more. The story? Who cares  :-() It's major entertainment  :-X

Helen Mirren is awesome in everything, my first screen crush  8-X :o :-[

[Art Blade]

your first screen crush?

[Fiach]

I fancied the arse off her in a big way .......*cough* erm I found her quite attractive, when I was quite young  >:D

[mandru]

 ^+-+

[Art Blade]

 ^+-+ :-X

[fragger]

 ^+-+

I think I first saw her in Excalibur. She was something of a hottie in those days! I have a great admiration for Mirren, I think she's a tremendously talented performer :-X I watched her in the title role as The Queen not long ago, and I was very impressed by the production and especially by Mirren's performance.

[Art Blade]

Ahhh yes, the Queen! I got that DVD and was really amazed at how great she was. :) :-X

[Fiach]

Yes, Excalibur was the first time I saw her, it was shot in Ireland.

If you can be bothered to check it out, she had a TV series called Prime Suspect, back in the 80's/90's, it was really well produced, great stories/acting. Each series had maybe 4 x  1.5 hour episodes, I think there were maybe six series all together, but yes she is/was a class act. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Suspect_%28UK_TV_series%29

If you search for it you should be able to find the series easily enough, its about 10 gigs.

[Art Blade]

Having bought a new BD player and in need of recent films I hadn't watched before I finally decided to give Avatar a shot. I bought a special edition that contains three versions of the film, I watched the "extended collector's edition" which is 16 minutes longer than the original cine version which is 8 minutes shorter than the extended cine version. Hehe, yes. In this collector's BD box there are three discs with all kinds of stuff around the film and its production but I just wanted to watch a film.

Although I don't have any 3D devices, the images of the film were still impressive. It had been said before, the film reminds of Pocahontas, and I'd add that it also reminds me of Enemy Mine, Eragon, Starship Troopers and perhaps because of Sigourney Weaver along with military forces, of Alien. Regarding the avatar itself, it reminds of The Matrix (get wired up on board of the Nebuchadnezzar and control your alter ego in the matrix) or The 13th Floor (because of the same principle). Maybe even more films but hey, that's already enough  :)

I read through the scattered previous posts about Avatar and apart from praising its 3D effects there were two criticisms regarding "evil humans" and phoney "eco" messages as in protect and save the environment.

Plot:

Spoiler

The film basically describes how a young ex-marine in a wheel chair is offered to take on the job of his recently deceased twin brother, who was a scientist, because the project he was working on involved his genome which was basically identical to his own. The genome was needed to establish a remote control linked to an artificially created humanoid alien life form, the avatar, on a far-away planet, Pandorra. His job is to physically get onto the planet and persuade the natives within three months time to leave their home ground because it sits on the biggest resource of a rare and extremely valuable mineral the company which employed him wants to mine. Our handicapped soldier simply slips into some hightech sarcophagus and transfers his mind to control a vital non-handicapped alien, his avatar. Tall, strong, inexperienced, he has to stand his man in a hostile sort of pre-historical environment in which the humanoid aliens live like Stone Age hunters who are spiritually and physically linked to the ecosystem. He happens upon the daughter of a tribe chief who orders her to teach the avatar everything. Of course they quickly fall in love and of course he learns everything perfectly well, ranging from language to riding dragons. He learns that the humans are about to destroy the alien culture and people. So he goes rogue and becomes a well-respected alien warlord who unites all clans of the planet to fight the humans back, marries his teacher and, after voluntarily and irrevocably transferring his mind into his avatar, becomes one of them to stay forever.

All in all I am surprised, if I say so myself, that I liked the film. I don't care about hidden messages and regard it as a very colourful sci-fi / fantasy version of Pocahontas (which is a film that I liked, too).  ;D

[Fiach]

I loved Avatar, I also liked the game too :)

Inception is pretty awesome on Blueray mate, also The Expendables. Not only as films in their own right, but the extras on the disc are quite engrossing :)

[JRD]

On my STEAM version of AC2 there's a video of Avatar, the game... how do you like it Fiach? It looks really cool on that vid and I never thought about it, but it can do a very nice game as well!!

[PZ]

We watched Avatar in 3D at the theater, and it was quite enjoyable  :-X

[Fiach]

Well Avatar scored an average of 7 upon release, so opinions are quite subjective, as the saying goes, your mileage may vary :)

The games format follows the movie story pretty accurately, except you are a different person. Its a third person shooter in an open world environment. This open world (rainforest) is very well presented, with both the usual ground based areas, plus the upper canopy, which is accessed by vines that can be climbed.

You navigate this area by several means, jeep, boat helicopter, or on beasts that you have to capture and tame, like 6 legged zebra looking things (horse-like) giant black panther types of things and also the weird bird-like things from the movie.

The game is a third person shooter, but you can also use melee weapons too, depending on which faction you choose, Na'vi or human, decides what your weapon load out is going to be, bows and swords, or machine guns.

As you move through the jungle on missions, you will come accross firefights with your faction engaging the enemy, but you dont have to take part i these skirmishes, you can just follow your mission parameters.

As the game progresses, you have to decide at key points, which side you will choose to aid, while the game autosaves, at these choice junctures, the game makes a "hard" save, so you can return to these junctures and replay as the other side, if you want to just try different strategies, or you find that tyhe choice you made has unpalatable consequences. The choices are pretty hard hitting.

The gfx are very good, not quite Far Cry 2, but the game has to render alot of stuff, not just open veldt, but two tiers of a jungle, with alot of pretty visual effects (eg the pink glowing trees etc). It also accomodates 3D TV's, which is accesed via the options menu.

If you liked the movie, I think you would like the game too :)

[Fiach]

Here are some excerpts from my review, to save you scrolling through a bunch of pages :)

Well, kinda by default, I got this game as nobody else wanted it, I've only been playing a few hours, so here are my first impressions.

Firstly, it seems every reviewer and their dog, dislikes this game, so bear that in mind, before rushing out to buy it after reading this.

When you start the game, you hit the character creation screen, you dont have any real control, I think there are about 12 male and female preset characters to choose from. They all look pretty similar too, mostly different hairstyles and skin tines.

You start off as a grunt marine type, just landed on the planet Pandora after 5 years in a cryo sleep for the journey. Its hinted that alot has happened in those five years.

You are sent on a couple of missions, to aquaint yourself with movement, combat, vehicles etc.

Once you exit the compound and enter the jungle type surrounding area, you will be pretty amazed at the visuals, there is no point in comparing them to FC2 as this has more dense vegetation, rivers, waterfalls etc. Whereas FC2 is beautiful, but quite barren in comparison.

There are times, in some of the higher areas, that the game even seems "majestic", in the grandeur of its environment. The plant life is quite unique, even scary! I was in an area at the start and I walked towards some plants that actually looked like they had razor sharp "fan-like" leaves, I walked slowly, because they looked vicious, as I drew adjacent to them, the disappeared, I thought it was a clipping bug, but no, it wasn't. I was afraid to go through, incase they reappeared and locked me into the area!

The wildlife is also quite unique and vicious, when you play as a marine type, everything hates you, but when you play as a native (Na'Vi), only about half the fauna hates you :)

The marines use guns and can call in airstrikes, the Na'Vi use more primitve weapons, well they look primitive, but the bow is one of the best bows I have ever used in a game, as you level up, you get more weapons and skills made available, you dont have to purchase them, they just become available and you assign them to different buttons.

The types of skills are quite varied, Self heal, Call an animal to fight at your side, an AoE stun skill if you are getting mobbed, turn Invisible, move faster, have stronger attacks etc.


The vehicles for the army are jeep/boat  types, but thats all I have seen as I have only played as Na'Vi.
The Na'Vi have a nice selection, Notably a weird horse type creature and eventually an awesome eagle/dragon type arial vehicle.

Combat takes some getting used to, the monsters are pretty fast and the game is TPS, so getting accurate shots takes some getting used to, the Bow is quite awesome, pull and hold the trigger and the bow kinda locks on to the target, but doesnt hold the lock if the target is moving, the arrows provide incredible damage, alot of one-hit kills. You also get two swords (dual wield) or a club, or a kind of Darth Maul staff melee weapon, you gather arrows by interacting, with the plant life, you aquire bullets by killing marines, wheras the marine characters have types of vending (but free) machines that replenish all your ammo, if you interact with them.

At a certain point in the game you must choose whether you play as a native or a marine, I chose native, but they are two very diverse play styles, that the game will have plenty of length, a single play is supposed to be about 15 hours, so I guess 15X2.

The quests so far are pretty varied, and seem intended to make you explore, even though your compass is pointing in a certain direction, there are many trails and paths that entice you away from your current goal.

Alot of effort has been made to create a "lore" for the world of Pandora, you can "scan" many items like flora and fauna and machines, similar to Metroid Prime, to fill up a kind of in-game encyclopaedia.

I'm currently enjoying the game I cant understand so much hate for it, my mate Dan hated it for example (hence my copy), but its a very deep game that is very immersive and though there is alot of (mostly) combat, the world in which it happens is very immersive, I would nearly say its more of an experience than just a game.

Anyway, so far so good.


I forgot to mention that the Na'Vi also get a machine gun, which upgrades as you level, you cannot use the human weapons as the Na'Vi are about 12 foot tall, which makes spotting camoflaged tiny humans a little difficult at times.

I dont know why Dan hated the vehicls controls, I find them OK, I had problems with the flying dragon thing, but it was a combination of me flying too fast and not realising that there was a "reverse" control too, for tight spots.

I must say that the view of the planet rom the air, is quite a spectacle, also the height to which you can climb (I havent hit the ceiling yet), is quite impressive.

Interesting video on the Banshee creature (flying mount)

Avatar

Well I made a new character and went marine this time, (I havent finished the Na'Vi one yet), to get a more rounded view of the game.

I can see why people complain about the vehicle controls, there is a slight issue with the marine helicopter gunship you get.

I use reversed controls for flying (eg pull back for up and push forward for down), The game uses the opposit of my preference, but, you cannot change this control, which takes a little getting used to, especially when shooting stuff with the chopper, you have to remember to aim with the left stick, not the right one, which is odd as the on foot aiming is done with the right stick, it just seems like a weird oversight.

Also with the buggys and boats, you steer with the left stick, let the camera take care of itself, but I tended to use the camera stick initially. Now I have no problems.

The human campaign is pure evil though, from what I have played, so is quite different from the Na'Vi campaign. Its interesting how the plants and animals attack you as a human, as opposed to when you are a Na'Vi.

Marine weapons are standard fare, Assault rifles, Shotguns, Flamethrowers, dual pistols, Nailguns, these all upgrade in quality, as you gain levels too, which is nice.

Na'Vi weapons are primitive fare, Dual swords, Clubs, Staves (like darth maul) and of course the bow.

Anyway, bottom line is, this is a really good game, excellent visuals (there is a 3D mode for 3D televisions, which I believe makes Crysis look like crap), a very immersive world, a good story to drive you along, lots of exploration, the weapons are cool for both sides and each get different skill sets, Humans can call in an air strike, which never gets old :), plus the vehicles are really cool too.

8/10 (would have been 9/10 but for the chopper controls).

LOL still finding new stuff.

As you play you gain experience (XP), this translates into upgrades of skills/gear......BUT....

At teleporters, your experience accumulates as "credits", these credits can be spent in a "Risk" style game, where you have a globe of the planet Pandora, divided into countries and continents.

You spend the credits on creating troops (grunts, Banshees etc.) and use them to invade and take over neutral countries and enemy countries as you battle to control the planet. This is totally seperate to the standard campaign game.

Its like a simplified Command and Conquer game, but success transleates back into the campaign in XP and gear as well. So a very nice synergy going on there.

Well at this stage, I have both my characters up to the same level and its quite interesting, so heres a few points.

1. The Na'vi can sort of "live off the land", he gets his ammo by interacting with trees, this also allows him to collect "cells", every ten cells gives him one life, so, although health regenerates and he has a heal spell, if he dies, he gets a chance to "recover". He can have 5 "recovers" before he has to resurrect at a checkpoint.
The check points are always near each other, so its no biggie, any damage done to enemies, or if any are killed, they stay damaged or dead. This adds a certain easiness to the game, but bear in mind the Na'Vi have no armour and use primitive weapons, this does provide a sense of balance.

The Human is similar, but gets ammo from dispensers that are about 100 yards/meters apart, so its never a problem running out of ammo. The human can only collect cells for recovery, from random drops, by killed enemies, so they have access to less recovery items, but they have better weapons and armour.

2. Its interesting playing as both species as you can see how the skills w%&k in combat from the other sides point of view. For example, there is a Na'vi skill that makes you run faster and phase in and out of visibility, I never bothered with it, until I played as a human and saw the Na'vi do it..... its bloody effective, they keep disappearing as they run at you with these massive clubs, so combat really keeps yu on your toes.

3. The humans get more toys, like mech suits, mobile missile vehicles, buggies, choppers. The Na'vi are all beast riders, the manual only mentions two forms of transport, Direhorses and Banshees, but there are more, they all look really cool and handle well, but the flying takes a little getting used to for both races.

4. The plants HATE humans and have interesting and exotic methods of killing them :), I was in a battle today as a human, I was being attacked by Viperwolves (kinda like Skags that can go invisible), Navi ranged and melee, plus two different types of plants, one that fired poison gas and one that lobbed pineapple sized explosives, it was utter chaos, because I  had marine units helping me, using guns and grenades, the ragdoll physics were very impressive, with people and animals (me included), being blown all over the place.

5. Frequently you will encounter skirmishes between groups of Na'vi and marines, you can help or not as desired, but it reinforces the feeling that you are in a warzone, I have also been in firefights with Na'Vi and suddenly a chopper will come in and drop a platoon of marines to help me out (without being asked for by me), also, you will sometimes come across marines or Na'vi fighting with the local wild life, which makes the world seem more alive.

I checked the metacritic score for this game and it only scored 5.5/10, that is totally bonkers for this game, I can only assume that its utter morons that need games to hold their hands, that are voting scores like that.

It is a really good game, although I know some dont like the TPS view.

It has great graphics, a really good two sided storyline, very diverse gameplay and very imaginitive vehicles. It may not have 87 bazillion guns, but the ones you have get upgraded every level or so, to make them more effective.


The vegetation is so lush, sometimes when the combat gets hectic, with the physics, you can get thrown into the foliage and cannot see your targets, because the camera is over your head.

Now this is no big deal, I would prefer to have the lush foliage than FPS really and getting out of the foiage is just a jump button away, which is what you would use in FPS anyway.

I wish there was a demo available, because the environment is really nice to look at.

[JRD]

Wow... that`s a great review... thanks a lot, mate!  :-X

It sounds pretty interesting. Open world, TPS - which I enjoy, by the way - two sides to choose from and two stories to play... I`ll take a closer look at this game for sure!

Allow me a few more questions
- Are there a day/night cycle or weather changes?
- Too many scripted events or random encounters with enemies / local fauna?
- you mentioned 15 hours x 2 and lots of things to do but are there side missions, quests or room for fooling around that can extend those 15 hours?

*************************************************************************************

Just a quick check.... STEAM have it for US$19,99 and I found this video on the Na`Vi gameplay... pretty impressive!  8)

james camerons avatar - the game - navi gameplay trailer

[Art Blade]

I liked the brief summary of the game, Fiach :-D

[Fiach]

Allow me a few more questions
- Are there a day/night cycle or weather changes?
- Too many scripted events or random encounters with enemies / local fauna?
- you mentioned 15 hours x 2 and lots of things to do but are there side missions, quests or room for fooling around that can extend those 15 hours?

I dont actually remember about day/night or weather mate sorry, but I dont think there are.

There are quests, you will be direced to where you wish to go, you can travel most places with a vehicle, iirc there is a teleport system too. Random encounters are just firefights. You can definately fool around in vehicles and on mounts, the jungle is very immersive so you can go exploring, so you arent confined to plot, you can go pretty much where you want, as the game opens up, I dont think its as big as JC 2, if thats any help.

[PZ]

Wow, great mini-review, and the visuals are very detailed and colorful, just like the movie.  :-X

[JRD]

That`s a game to have on my list to one of those STEAM fire sales for sure... not getting it now as I have too many games to play with me and a few more to come, but thanks again for all the info Fiach... much appreciated, mate!  :-X

[Fiach]

Jest doin' mah job suh :) .... (That was supposed to sound like a US police officer, but I dont think I quite pulled it off :))

I'm revisiting old classics like Baldurs Gate and Arcanum (isometric RPG's), may do a retrospective post on old games on new machines someday soon, but they are severely eating up my playtime, so I cant get near new stuff as quickly as I would like.