Defendor

In the slew of comic book movies/vigilante stories that have been appearing on the silver screen, a la kick-ass, the losers, and the recent addition to the Boondock Saints franchise, one movie, though left mostly unnoticed, stands out from the bunch in the questions it asks and the

emotions it evokes. This movie is Defendor ("or", not "er") and it tells the tale of Arthur Poppington and his life as a construction worker/vigilante in the streets of a crime-ridden city. During the day, he carries on as an average joe construction worker, but at night, he becomes Defendor: protector of justice and punisher of drug pushers and wrongdoers.
The roller coaster ride of a movie takes you through Defendor's search for the evil mastermind, "Captain Industry", an ambiguous character created by Defendor that plagues the streets with drugs, guns, and all sorts of other illegal activity. Defendor's tyrade starts when he catches a crooked cop participating in not-so-savory activities with a young prostitute, played by Kat Dennings, and proceeds to throw marbles at him and then beat him with a WWII trench club - which are part of his ghetto-rigged assortment of spy tools and crime fighting apparatus.

The story continues as he runs into the same cop again, and begins to unravel a growing

crime syndicate. Now from this description, you could be describing

any

vigilante/crime fighting movie, but there are a few things that Defendor brings to the table that bring some fresh perspectives to a classic plot. The first is the mental state of the main character, which is not psychopathic or clouded with visions of ultimate justice. Instead he's rather mentally handicapped due to drug abuse of his mother - as we discover later on. This presents the scenario of a man who does not necessarily know the difference between what's acceptable and what's not in society, so all he knows is that he wants to punish the bad guys because they did something wrong. This is brought to light very well in the interview segments of the movie, which happen with a clinical psychologist, Dr. Park, played by Sandra Oh, in which he is being evaluated for mental stability after the destruction of local dry cleaners.

These segments are interlaced into about the first three quarters of the movie and provide more insight into his motives, which are surprisingly simple and honest, throwing the perspective of his actions into a completely different light. It's really the impressive way Woody Harrelson plays the main character, that brings the underlying plot devices to life. While slightly handicapped, he still functions as a regular individual in society and interacts well with others, he merely shows more of a sheltered personality that is mixed with the pure sense of justice than a child has, that bad guys get punished and good guys punish them.

As much as I've already described, you can only really get an idea as to what this movie is

about by watching it, since it's hard to really delve into the psychological phenomenons and statements that the movie makes without creating spoilers. Yet another interesting aspect of the movie is the way it presents comedy. In the beginning, some of Defendor's antics are just genuinely amusing, even though they are usually mixed directly with tragedy at multiple points during the movie, giving the same actions multiple meanings and thus changing Defendor's motivation as the plot progresses. As underrated as this movie was, it's really something everyone should watch, whether you're looking for a good chuckle, good drama or even something that invokes some thoughts at the end, this movie will satisfy in many different ways.

Rec - The Animation

Even though the blog has been fairly dead lately due to a lack of interest from the original writers, I was watching this show for the first time in a while, and i felt a need to tell someone about it. so here is my review for the 2007 animated short series, Rec.

Rec is an under appreciated short series that came out in 2007 which tells the cute tale of a blossoming voice actress and a typical Japanese salary man and how they are brought together through all kinds of circumstances.

Dead Or Alive: Online

Hi there! I just happen to have more time than I thought I'd have... you think I'd invest some time into visiting the city I am currently in? WRONG! I've been starving for 17hours now... I think that's good though, because it doesn't really hurt... ANYWAY...

I've been using my time wisely ...or so I would like to say, but I surely am not doing so.
I discovered Dead Or Alive: Online - an sort of online roleplay game which has some nice typical Dead Or Alive gameplay - for PC on Saturday. And even though I knew that my laptop would barely be able to run it, I put it onto the laptop and took it with me. Just before I left I played some quick matches on my home computer ... it ran flawlessly and amazingly well! The graphics really impressed me since it seemed more detailed than Dead Or Alive Ultimate 2 - don't know about Dead Or Alive 4, since I didn't really got to play it... but this one is certainly interesting.
In the following I'll try to summarize my impressions as well as give you an idea of how the game works and where you can get it.

What I'll be writing about:

• What's DOA:O at all?
• Installation of the game
• Registration
  
• DOA:O, Windows 7 and "GameProtect" (GameGuard anyone?)
• Interface summary
• What you can and can't do
• DOA:O - releases in Japan, NA, EU?
• Communities
• Conclusion
  

(Warning: THIS GAME IS NOT A GAME!)

The Nintendo DS has been a great time waster for me. On the bus, during work, during school, after I quit work, after I dropped out of school, and long after I could no longer afford to ride the bus, I still love to pick it up and play it. Its probably the system that does the best job of distracting me from the horror of my own existence for an hour or two now and then.

But in all seriousness, I love it. Although it just so happens that one of my favorite games on the system is in fact not a game at all. And I would not reccomend it to gamers. Read more to find out what it is.

Armored

Armored is pretty standard Hollywood action fare. It doesn't try and do anything spectacularly different or new, but it manages to be a relatively pleasing film if you want some decent action with a fairly good narrative and a cast that performs reasonably well. It’s a somewhat typical heist-gone-wrong film with a tiny twist to the traditional tale, but one which has been seen before.
Early in the game there was a refreshing performance from Laurence Fishburne, rather than the usual broody and somewhat dark characters I seem to see him playing, he actually laughs!

Cop Out

Even though this blog has only been up and running for a couple days, you may notice that I have a tendency to watch animated works over live action film, and that pattern will most likely follow far into the future, however I came across a movie today that gave me no reason not to see it.

~

From director Kevin Smith, and starring my man, John Mcl-excuse me, Bruce Willis, and my second favorite black comedian of all time, Tracy Morgan, comes the 2010 comedy film, Cop Out.

Another Minion for Our Ranks!!!!

Today we introduced a new reviewer, who i have known for only a little while, but trust me, if you want to know anything about Canada, Rush, Fender basses, or obscure video games, this is your man. He goes by the name of Futtigue, and he is here to enlighten all of us with his arcane knowledge. You can check out his first review of the game Jet Set Radio Future right here. We're glad to have you Futtigue!

Toradora! SOS - Connoisseurs Banzai

A little pre-review banter, I lied! Actually, while I said I wouldn't be reviewing until next weekend, I saw this and just had to say something about it, so I decided to do sort of a mini-review, if you will. So without further adieu, here it is:

You will rarely see me review DVD extras or shows that can only be categorized as "moe", but just this once, I will make an exception for the cuteness and humour that is Toradora SOS. This show was released as a DVD extra in the Japanese release of the hit show, Toradora!, and features the main characters in a very tastefully stylized chibi-form discussing foods, and having a competition each episode about the said food.

Jet Set Radio Future - XBOX

I am so excited right now. I HAVE to tell you all about this game. Its one of my favorites. Seriously, like, top five. Right up there with Earthbound. If you havent already read the title of the post, then I'll tell you the name of the game right now: Jet Set Radio Future.

If you've played the game before, then the first thing you've noticed about my review so far is that the first image I've used is not in the game. Nor is it on the box. In fact, it's the interior of the hard-to-find Japanese soundtrack CD. If you're wondering about my choice of screenshots to introduce people to the game, then I'll be straightforward: it is incredibly hard to use a screenshot to convey the dynamic beauty of JSRF. It's even harder to find a good quality Youtube video that doesn't have some ten-year-old shouting over top of the footage, so you'll just have to try it for yourself.

Oppai Volleyball

I approached Oppai Volleyball with a degree of apprehension. The title seems pretty clear cut, but the movie itself turned out to not meet my preconceptions (thank you DoA: Extreme Beach Volleyball). It started off slightly cheesy and somewhat reminiscent of Green Green (a particularly lewd anime), replete with nosebleed scene and dirty jokes thanks to the flexibility of the Japanese language, but possibly, somewhat fortunately, that didn’t entirely set the tone for the rest of the film.Not having any knowledge beforehand of a majority of the actors in the film, nor the crew who put it together, I was rather disappointed in the palette and quality of the production. While it somewhat fits the feeling of the setting, 70s Japan, the overall picture seemed rather bland and uninteresting. There was a very restricted palette when it could have been a much more vibrant and exciting film. The title suggested something which would titillate (pardon the pun), but what it ended up being something that matched the look of the film, somewhat flat and lifeless, but not without its quirks and value.

Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise

This movie is like a time portal, bringing you back to the days of Gainax before Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann , Before FLCL, and even before Neon Genesis Evangelion, back to 1987, when Gainax was still a fledgling corporation still struggling to make it in the emerging days of anime. After their first major debut work, "Otaku no Video" in 1985 and its sequel in 1986, comes the first full length movie to come out of the studio in 1987. Wings of Honneamise is a beautifully animated, 2 hour long movie that was and is hailed as a classic in the world of anime. Despite this, it is still largely unknown due to the more popular series that came out soon after such as "Gunbuster" and "The Secret of the Blue Water", which both experienced a great deal more of success.

Summer Wars

Summer Wars was last years summer blockbuster for the ever-growing Japanese Blu-Ray market selling over 50,000 copies and topping even the much anticipated re-release of Evangelion that came out not long before it.

The movie is set in the beautifully realized countryside of the Japanese city Ueda, located in the prefecture of Nagano.

The story is simple enough; a girl, Natsuki Shinohara, recruits another boy from her school, Kenji Koiso, to come on vacation with her to her families house in the country to serve unknowingly as her fiancee before her historically prominent family, the Shinohara clan.

Now, this is where the movie takes a turn for the better. Where most shows would have taken this situation and exploited the typical wacky hi jinks and over-played love story, Summer Wars introduces a refreshing plot to the tired scenario.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Intro

Well, I will be talking about the new Battlefield, Battlefield Bad Company 2 (BFBC2) and show that some EA games, which can be over-advertised, can really be good plain fun. I was somewhat surprised to see how good BFBC2 turned out to be. There is always this fear going around EA's games, when making a big rattle about them, that they will end up being really bad (like NFS Undercover). All in all, this game is really good so let's start with the gameplay....

Shangri-La Animation

Shangri-La

---

Introduction

With this review I`m going to try to give you an idea of this anime. I will try to either separate my own opinion from the facts or at least make it visible for you, so that you always know whether I`m suggesting something or whether it`s a matter of fact. I`m also trying to spoil as little as possible; however a review is almost always a bit of a spoiler and hence you should decide on your own whether to keep reading or not. If you are going to watch the anime anyway I`d suggest you don`t read this review.
I started to watch this anime, because I had an opportunity to get my hands on a 1080p HDTV (by O-L]) rip. At first I wasn`t even sure whether I`d drop this anime or not, but as the story and the characters developed, I decided to continue. I didn`t regret this, because it got better almost at the half of it (around episode 10).

IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!

Born out of the sudden machinations of three godlike beings fated to meet in the dark depths of IRC chat rooms who have united to form the new higher echelon of reviewing technology from our internets to yours. Our founder, known only to man as Lonyo, will be covering mainly live action films, while Aoi, and myself, Black Macgyver, will cover the fineries of visual media to the west and beyond. follow us on our journey through all things visual!!!!!

EDIT: also, joining our ranks is Ishmayeck who will cover whatever he wants to because that's how we roll.

~Black Macgyver~