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!