Super Smash Brothers Brawl: The Next Generation of the Nintendo Beat-em-up
Every console has a defining game that makes people go out and snap it up as quickly as they can. (Except for Sony- that's one of their crippling failures). As Halo 3 was for the XBox 360, so is Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii. Easily one of the best games for a new console by FAR, Brawl is one of the most hyped game releases in a very long time, eclipsing many of the other big releases of the year. Not that it doesn't deserve to be- it's one of the best games of the year, easily. The third in the series of popular games, Super Smash Brothers Brawl is based on a very simple, very effective idea. Take all the various heroes, villains, and main characters from all the most popular games, throw them into an arena, and have them beat the hell out of one another. Simple in concept, flawless in execution, the Super Smash Brothers series has been a major part of the Nintendo franchise for a long time coming, from the original Super Smash Brothers for the Nintendo 64, to Super Smash Brothers Melee for the Gamecube, to Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii.

I went to a release party at the local Game Crazy, and it was absolutely massive, Over 400 copies had been pre-ordered, and about half of them were to be picked up at the stroke of midnight when the game first went on sale. They had a huge tournament, where the winner got a free copy of Brawl. Some excellent play went down. The winner won his best 2 out of 3 match with absolutely excellent play of Marth and Bowser. I got to get some decent play in, playing for the first time in about a year. I wasn't THAT rusty, playing a decent Captain Falcon, Samus, and Marth, but I really could have done quite better. In any case, I really hope to finally buy my Wii and grab a copy of Brawl ASAP.

Until Next Time...
02:09 PM PST Permalink |

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney - The New Generation of Justice
I'm such a liar.

I swore up and down that I wouldn't like this game. I mean, it had so much going against it. First off, they decided that the best way to make the series fresh was to almost entirely discard the cast of the Phoenix Wright games in exchange for a new set of characters. No more Edgeworth. No Gumshoe. None of the Fey family... In my mind, it was a recipe for disaster. Fixing what isn't broken never worked well for any game series. And yet, despite the fact that I was so vehemently opposed to the IDEA of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, I found myself last week in my local Game Crazy once again, plunking down the 35 dollars for the game.

And you know what? It wasn't that bad. It was actually a lot better than I'd expected it to be. They created a thoroughly decent cast of characters that, while not as amusing as the cast of Phoenix Wright, still add a lot to the game. Apollo is (as expected) the same kind of nervous, inexperienced, not very confident attorney. Trucy is just too freakin' cute... and while she's probably my favorite character of the game, I'd take Maya any day over her. Phoenix pops up again, sort of in the same role that Mia played in the PW games. And the new detective, Ema Skye, is one of the few returning characters from the old games, being the sidekick character for "Rise From The Ashes," the DS-only case that was added to the first Phoenix Wright game.

However, here's the part of the review that I've been dreading writing. My first problem... is that the game is short. WAY short. To put it in perspective, I spent more time beating the final case of Trials & Tribulations than I did beating the entire game of Apollo Justice. This is a devastating weak point, given that the game has absolutely nil in replay value. My second real qualm with the game is just how... not compelling the last case is compared to the last cases of the other games. Each of the other cases has had a main villain- the real murderer- who is just such a reprehensible human being that when you finally lock them away... And that just isn't there in the last case of Apollo Justice.

But by far, my biggest issue is the prosecutor. I actually liked Klavier Gavin... and therein lies the problem. Edgeworth was always condescending, overconfident, and knew what you were going to say before you even said it, and already had an answer. Manfred... was everything Edgeworth was (like mentor, like student), but to a MUCH greater degree. Franziska was abusive, yet was always able to shut down your case to such a great degree that recovery seemed impossible. And Godot... was consistently so aloof, never being bothered by anything, and always knowing exactly where the weak point of your case was, and exploiting that to the fullest. Compare that to Gavin... He almost seemed to be COACHING you through the case.

In any case, Apollo Justice is a decent addition to the series. It may not live up to the high standard set by the other games, but it's still decent in its own right. Until Next Time...
02:43 PM PST Permalink |

Your Webcomic is Bad, and You Should Feel Bad
No, I don't mean you specifically. However, it's pretty easy to spot bad ones... most of the time.

Good thing there's John Solomon, the man behind Your Webcomic is Bad, and You Should Feel Bad. Your Webcomic Is Bad is a blog written by John Solomon (a pseudonym) that searches the internet for webcomics of mediocre or bad quality, then posts long, involved rants about why each webcomic is bad. Now, anyone can talk down about a webcomic, but the thing that sets this blog's reviews apart from others is that the author actually takes the time to read through the comic and write about specific instances of bad writing, art style, and general lack of depth in character development and dialog. Combine this style of writing and reviewing with his standard anger and hate-filled rants, and it becomes an incredibly amusing blog.

One of the excerpts from his blog on Dominic Deegan, one of the worst webcomics that I've ever read:

"Dominic Deegan is a webcomic so bad you'd think it was hosted on an ancient Indian burial ground. It's so unwaveringly terrible it might as well be a universal constant. It's so bad that it spoils milk. It's so bad that your computer will physically smell when you load the page, an aroma of brimstone, decaying meat and burning feces that will linger for days afterward. It is so bad that none of what I have just said does justice to how bad it is."

Check out the rest of his work at Your Webcomic is Bad and You Should Feel Bad. Until Next Time...
02:20 PM PST Permalink |

Manga As The New Medium
Manga and Graphic Novels have exploded in popularity in the past couple years. Acting as a revival of the popularity of old-school comic books, but integrating complex stories with heavy action in order to create an atmosphere that draws in readers. This atmosphere has recently found itself not only used as a source of entertainment, but also as a way to make old ideas accessible to a new audience. To this end, Ajinbayo Akinsiku has released The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation, a graphic novel version of the Bible aimed to make the original text much more accessible to a younger audience. With a greater emphasis on action and faster pacing, Akinsiku hopes to bring the Bible to people who are normally too intimidated to take the first step.

One notable part of the Manga Bible is its presentation of old characters with modern interpretations. Characters such as Noah are given a fresh model. During the counting of the Ark's animals, a miscount leads Noah to exclaim, "That'€™s 11,344 animals? Arggh! I'€™ve lost count again. I'€™m going to have to start from scratch!" On the other side of the coin, Christ is shown as a touch of a revolutionary, stirring up trouble and acting like a general tough guy rather than the traditional savior that he's portrayed as.

You can read more about this in this NY Times article. Until Next Time...
05:53 PM PST Permalink |

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann- Drilling Through To The Heavens
Once again, I'm constantly on the lookout for new and cool Anime series to watch. Unfortunately, my sources are dwindling. However, I sometimes come across a couple amazing finds now and then... Case in point? Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. An anime so excellent that despite the fact that it hasn't actually been released in America yet, it's still managed to find its way around the internet, garnering incredible amounts of praise everywhere it goes. Eager to see if the hype was actually true or not, I went and grabbed one of the many fansubbed versions floating around on the net. What I found was that Tengen Toppa is an excellent series that deserves all of the praise it gets (something that I rarely can say about many Anime).

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann takes place in a bleak world where every human being is confined to underground villages, forced to live on meager resources and dig their way through the ground to expand their village and get more ground for their insubstantial lives. However, there is one that wishes to break free of all of this: Kamina, a fiery-spirited warrior whose own short-lived experiences on the surface create in him a hunger to return and make his mark on the world. The problem is that Kamina's viewed as a troublemaker by everyone in the village. Everyone but Simon, that is. Simon is Kamina's trusted friend, as well as one of the premier diggers in the city. But when he finds a mysterious drill pendant, and a small robot to which the pendant seems to act as a key, Simon and Kamina's luck turns around.

As this is happening, the peace of the village is disturbed by a couple invaders- Yoko, a woman from the surface wielding a gigantic rifle, and a gigantic robot called a Ganmen. The two arrive locked in fierce battle, and things are looking grim for Yoko- that is, until Simon shows up with his newly-found Lagann (The name given to the mini-Ganmen found by Simon) and defuses the situation. Of course, this is the chance that Kamina's been waiting for to bust through to the surface and make his mark. But when Simon and Kamina get to the surface, they find that even existing on the surface is a monumental task, as the Ganmen, robots controlled by the beastmen who run the surface world, mount daily attacks on the last pocket of resistance on the surface. Recognizing this as his chance to make his mark, Kamina devotes himself to freeing the surface world from the beastmen, whatever it takes. Dragging along Simon for the ride, the fight for survival on the surface may have the strength to launch a counter-attack.

While the show seems straight-forward, there's much more to it than my meager plot synopsis can show. Tengen Toppa is a lot more than your average mecha anime, and it has EASILY earned a place in my top ten anime of all time. It does, however, have that "Trigun" feel to it, where it's all fun and games up to the turning point, where the real drama kicks in. Still, there are twists and turns around every corner in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and this makes it a phenomenal series to watch. I eagerly await its release in North America.

Until Next Time...
02:21 PM PST Permalink |

Immaterial and Missing Power- Touhou Shooter-Fighter Hybrid
I have a friend that is always up on the oddest games. In addition, he's a HUGE fan of all the fighting games that are out there. (King of Fighters, Street Fighter, Dead Or Alive, and especially the fan-made general fighting game console MUGEN) So every once in a while, he tells me about a game that I should play, and I usually humor him. I've never been that much of a fighting game fan, so I'm usually skeptical of his suggestions. But every once in a while, there's a gem that he tosses me. The most recent of those is Immaterial and Missing Power, a shooter-fighter hybrid from the Touhou Project, a series of arcade-style shooting games. While the main game is in Japanese, almost all of the menus are in English, so it's not impossible to maneuver through the game.

Immaterial and Missing Power, or IaMP for short, is primarily a fighting game. However, what sets it apart from other fighting games is the control system. All of the characters are rather slow in melee- at least slower than in most fighting games. However, when you are a certain distance away from your opponent, your controls fire projectiles rather than using melee attacks. Using projectiles requires energy that regenerates quickly, but if you fire too many projectiles at the same time, you'll be too drained to use any more, as well as reducing your ability to block effectively. Projectiles can be grazed (avoided) by either using certain attacks with grazing frames or dashing through them. For this reason, the gameplay of Immaterial and Missing Power is a balance between being able to mix it up effectively in melee and fighting well at range. Each character has their own moveset that emphasizes their own strengths and weaknesses, and each character is different to master. There are 11 characters in all: 6 standard, four secret, and one extra.

Reimu Hakurei- Generally balanced between melee and ranged. Very maneuverable. A good beginning character.

Marisa Kirisame- Another generally balanced character, with slightly more emphasis on melee attacks.

Alice Margatroid- Fights using puppets. For this reason, many of her attacks have significant windup, so it takes a bit more skill to use her effectively. Very effective if used correctly.

Sakuya Izayoi- Fights using thrown knives. A good balanced character, focusing on speed and agility. Works on the principle that you can't hurt what you can't hit.

Patchouli Knowledge- VERY good projectile ability, but incredibly slow and weak in melee. The key to using her is to fight at a distance as much as possible, wearing the enemy down over time.

Youmu Konpaku- Incredibly effective in melee, and very maneuverable. However, slow and not very powerful in range. The key is to get in close and fight up in the opponent's face.

Remilia Scarlet- The first secret character. Easily the fastest character in the game, and thus very effective with hit-and-run attacks. Medium power at range, but the ability to switch between melee and ranged quickly and seamlessly covers this weakness.

Yuyuko Saigyouji- Very, VERY slow movement, but great power and area in her attacks, with decent execution speed. Hard to get used to, but very strong.

Yukari Yakumo- Decent movespeed with slow, powerful attacks. If used correctly, she's rather strong, but outclassed by a number of other characters.

Suika Ibuki- The drunken oni, and boss of IaMP. Rather slow attacks, but VERY powerful. Unlike Yukari, though, she's quite fast and maneuverable, and generally has a better time landing her hits. While many of her moves are hard to hit with, if they hit, they do excellent damage.

Hong Meirin- The extra character- has no story mode, and an odd moveset. Most of her projectiles are more useful in close, so it's hard to use her effectively, as there's a VERY small window between where her projectiles kick in and where they can hit. Powerful, but hard to get used to.

The single-player is divided up into Arcade Mode and Story Mode. In Arcade Mode, you just fight your way through the characters. However, in Story Mode, you have to fight through a pre-determined set of opponents. Furthermore, these opponents have "story mode spellcards" which give them additional movesets to fight you with. Story Mode is much harder than Arcade Mode for this reason, but it's an excellent challenge. Also, through use of an open-source program, you can fight with friends over the internet. An excellent game, Immaterial and Missing Power is a fun hybrid that is sure to please any fan of either genre.

Until Next Time...
03:50 PM PST Permalink |

The Black Belt Testing

Yesterday, I completed one of the biggest milestones in my life: Getting my Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. I've been taking Tae Kwon Do for around 10-11 years, and I've been working up to this day for most of my life.

Generally, testings aren't that big a deal: First off, it's not really a test. All of the actual testing is done beforehand in class the week before. Second, all the testing usually is is a glorified class where the people testing show off what they've learned in class. However... the Black Belt testing is different. It's basically an endurance run where over three hours, your body is taxed to its limits by drills, forms, sparring, board breaking, and the like. Somewhere in the middle of this insane ordeal, the teacher asks the question that you want to hear the least: "Why are you doing this?" Now, normally, the question would be obvious. However, the placement of the question is directly after the most difficult part of the testing, placed such that if, just for a split second, you wonder why you're actually doing it. The temptation is there to say that you don't know or that you just want to give up. But the point is that even when it comes to that, you'll still go on.

Notably difficult parts include doing all fourteen (?!?) forms back-to-back. It's hard enough to keep a couple forms in your head, but to get the black belt, you have to know ALL of the standard forms. And while each form may not be tiring in and of itself, when you put all 14 of them together, it's quite the challenge. Next comes the moment of truth. There's a kick in Tae Kwon Do, a martial art known for its kicks, where you have to step behind to do a spinning roundhouse kick. Now, while incredibly powerful and rather fast, this kick is tiring beyond belief. And... for the test, I had to do 70 of them. Seventy. Back to back. And, after only a short break, I had to do my final form. There are not words for the difficulty of this task. However, I struggled through it, and managed to make it to the end. The final test is something my father refers to as the "Circle of Death." Basically, I'm in a sparring ring, and three Black Belts are outside the ring. One at a time, they come in, rotating, so while I'm tired out, they're always fresh and ready to go. The rotating continues on for about three minutes, until one by one, the remaining two black belts come into the ring, and I have to fight all three of them off at the same time, in a small space, without being cornered or surrounded. As tough as that sounds, I actually did rather alright given the circumstances.

And at the end of it all, I can now look forward and say that no matter what I have to come up against in the future, it won't be harder than the Black Belt Testing. Until Next Time...
03:42 PM PST Permalink |

The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass- A New Twist On An Old Franchise
There's been a long-standing fight between the various console makers for control over the large Video Game market, especially with the price of a console going so high that often it comes down to choosing between one or the other. So in the end, each console has to come up with gimmicks to make it more fun. To this end, each major company has solidified their hold on the market with their specific strong suits. The XBox 360 has all the amazing, high-intensity action games- Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, etc. Sony decided to create an entire multimedia experience- High-definition video for all of their games, Blu-ray video for the PS3, and the UMD for the PSP. However, Nintendo decided to go in a different direction. "How can we change the nature of the video game, and make it more fun?" The answer? New controls. Between the Touch Screen of the DS and the motion-sensor Wii Remote and Nunchuk, the Wii and the DS have changed the way games are played.

The best example of this is the latest offering in the age-old Legend of Zelda series: The Phantom Hourglass. Controlled entirely by the touch-screen (odd for a real-time RPG), Phantom Hourglass makes full use of every single new feature of the DS to play. You yell into the microphone to call out to characters, blow on it to blow out flames and fill windmills, you can write on your map, and there's even a part of the game where you have to close the DS in order to mimic pressing the pages of a book together.

It being a Legend of Zelda game, The protagonist is, of course, Link. And, as always, you're rescuing the beautiful Princess Zelda. However, the setting has changed dramatically. Link is a young swordsman under the command of Terra, a pirate captain. Terra just so happens to be Princess Zelda, though, so it works out. Or at least it would, if she hadn't been kidnapped by an evil Ghost Ship that has been abducting people. After Link finds himself unable to board the Ghost Ship and save Terra, he washes up on an island that is home to the mysterious Oshus, who teaches Link swordplay and sends him on his way. After meeting Linebeck, the stingy, cowardly, treasure-obsessed captain of the S.S. Linebeck, Link embarks on a journey that will take him to all the corners of the map in search of the Ghost Ship, his friend Terra, and the great evil that controls the fate of all the lands.

An amazing addition to the Legend of Zelda series, The Phantom Hourglass truly shows what the DS is capable of, in grand style. Until Next Time...
11:17 PM PST Permalink |

Texhnolyze- From The Mechanical To The Spiritual
I've never been much for the mainstream Anime. Chances are, if it's been on TV, and there's a huge following, I hate it. This leads me to seek out the lesser-known shows, in hopes that the lack of hype is hiding an above-average show. What I found was an odd, off-beat drama that takes a while to start up, but once it does, becomes a complex and involved story.

Texhnolyze takes place in the dark city of Lux, a city wracked with gang warfare. The reigning power is the Orugano, a group that uses a mineral called Raffia, which is not produced anywhere but Lux, to make the integration of robotic limbs into the human body possible. This process is called Texhnolyzation, and is pioneered by a mysterious doctor obsessed with using Texhnolyzation to perfect the human form. To this end, she bestows a pioneer new model of Texhnolyze Limbs on Ichise, a former pit fighter who loses an arm and a leg in a dispute with a local gang. Through this act of charity, Ichise finds himself indebted to the Orugano, which is becoming splintered due to infighting between the various council members. And behind the scenes... there is Ran, a mysterious young girl who evidently has the power to see one of many possible futures for a person.

This show reminded me somewhat of .hack//SIGN, in that it has no real comedic value, and is light on the action, but concentrates more on the philosophical aspects and dramatic buildup of character, which can act as a turn-off to many people. And as much as I'd like to recommend this series entirely, I must say that the first couple episodes are INCREDIBLY drab and boring, and it's tough to get through them. There's barely 3 lines of dialogue in the whole first episode. However, if you can get through the first disk, the rest comes easily. Until Next Time...
05:05 PM PST Permalink |

Heroes of Mana- Strategy Hybrid For The DS
I'm always looking for new games to play, too. This Christmas brought me a $25 Gift Card to Game Crazy, the offshoot of Hollywood Video that buys, sells, and trades new and used games for all consoles. I used the gift card to pick up Heroes of Mana, the latest game in the long-standing Mana series that goes back all the way to the Super Nintendo. Of course, with the advent of the DS has come a number of interesting new control possibilities, and Heroes of Mana takes advantage of them very well.

The main character is Roget, a scout in the Peddan army, on a recon mission to the nation of the Beastmen. However, when the scouting party arrives, they find that instead of a simple scouting mission, they are acting as a diversion for a surprise strike on the capital. Now finding themselves on the opposite end of their country, the five members of the scouting party- Roget, Yurchael, Qucas, Gemiere, and D'Kelli must seek out allies from all the countries and unite to defeat the corrupt Peddan Lord, whose actions herald a far greater catastrophe about to befall the world of Mana.

The game plays out with a style similar to an odd hybrid of Fire Emblem and Command and Conquer. You control Leader Units, which are stronger-than-average units that lead your troops on the battlefield. However, unlike most Strategy RPGs, your leaders are not your main fighting force. You are equipped with the Nightswan, a carrier that has the unique ability to build summoning structures and use them to summons combat units. Your leader units give a bonus to these summoned units, and by using them in tandem, you can create a capable fighting force to take on your foes. To keep up your army, you must gather Gaia Stones for building structures, and Treant Berries to summon units. Control is entirely touch-screen-based, though you can use the D-pad to move your view around.

Certainly a unique game, Heroes of Mana is fun for anyone that likes a good RTS. It's easy to learn, hard to master. Until Next Time...
05:11 PM PST Permalink |

Howl's Moving Castle- Slipped Under The Radar
Every once in a while, I wonder how it's possible for me to miss certain movies, but they just tend to slip through the cracks from time to time. This is one of those times. I was recently over at a friend's house, when she decided to show me a movie she'd picked up from the library. I was pretty stunned that I'd never gotten around to watching it: Howl's Moving Castle. One of the works from Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli, Howl's Moving Castle is a charming movie with just as much appeal for kids as for adults.

Sophie, the main character, works in a hat shop in her home town of Kingsbury. Though still in her youth, she acts as though she is an old maid, and has decided to work in the hat shop for the rest of her life as a service to her father, who originally owned the shop. However, when a chance encounter with the nefarious Witch of the Waste leaves her struck with a powerful curse that locks her into the body of an elderly woman, she decides to leave the town and hunt the Witch in an effort to regain her lost youth. Her journey takes her out into the wilderness, where she finds refuge in a great mechanical castle owned by a powerful wizard named Howl. However, when she learns of the fact that Howl is similarly cursed, she vows to find a way for him to break the curse and regain his lost heart.

One of the best parts of Howl's Moving Castle is its excellent vocal cast, including Christian Bale voicing Howl, Lauren Bacall voicing the Witch of the Waste, and Billy Crystal as Calcifer, the fire demon bound to Howl's service, who performs all the tasks of keeping the castle in order. While animated movies are usually geared for the kids, this movie has far more subtle plot points that make it a better choice for adults. A thoroughly charming and excellent movie, Howl's Moving Castle has a lot going for it. Until Next Time...
05:55 PM PST Permalink |

Stateside At Its Finest- The Simpsons Movie
It's one of the amazing miracles of television that a show like The Simpsons has lasted so long given its premises. It's always amazing to see an episode that you've never seen, and always find it to be new, fresh and entertaining. So when I heard about the Simpsons Movie, I was a touch worried. Can such an amazing show such as The Simpsons stretch itself out into an hour and a half long movie, and have all the humor of the original series?

I'm pleased to say that The Simpsons Movie was vastly better than I had expected, which is saying a lot, considering that I was already incredibly excited about the idea of a movie of The Simpsons. Featuring a souped-up title, fully redone intro, all the returning voice talents that give The Simpsons its charm, and a storyline befitting of the title, The Simpsons Movie is an excellent addition to the series.

Springfield finds itself in a crisis- massive amounts of pollution have turned the lake into a toxic waste dump. In order to quell the situation, the corrupt head of the EPA puts into effect a quarantine- a glass dome around Springfield, cutting it off from all outside contact. In an effort to fix the mistakes of their community, the Simpson family must find a way for Springfield to escape from its Snow-globe-esque existence, and save their community from a corrupt official.

With excellent humor, new characters that breathe life into the show, and gags ranging from Bart's naked skateboard ride through Springfield to Homer's adventures with "Spider-Pig," The Simpsons Movie delivers in all aspects. Until Next Time...
01:08 AM PST Permalink |

Jessica Renslow- Linguistic Wizard of Studiopolis Inc.
In the past several years, Anime has turned into a massive television industry, rapidly becoming one of the most popular forms of entertainment. All of this is due to the work of companies such as ADV and Viz, which search out new Anime and prepare it for release in the states. But with all of the hustle and bustle, flashy shows and star voice actors, it’s easy to forget about the people who make it possible for us to experience these new sights and sounds: the translators. On a daily basis, these linguistic wizards take what would be incomprehensible to many of us and transform it into media for the masses.

Jessica Renslow is one of these skilled translators, working as a "Resident Translator/Production Coordinator" for Studiopolis Inc., which works with Viz, TV Tokyo, Shonen Jump, Cartoon Network, Disney, and other animation and Manga companies. Born on Thanksgiving Day, 1980, in Gary, Indiana, she now lives in North Hollywood. "I live in a predominantly Latin neighborhood in North Hollywood, CA. It’s good practice for my Spanish!" An avid traveler, she has driven cross-country six times in the last year, in addition to a number of excursions to Europe and Asia, one of which found her living and working in the town of Pippu on Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan, from 2003 to 2006.

Read the full article on ThingsAsian.

Until Next Time...
11:39 PM PST Permalink |

Brother From Another Planet- Indie Sci-Fi With A Comic-Book Feel
As enamored of animation as I am, every once in a while, I stray from my colorful, well-drawn world and check out what's good in live-action. Unfortunately, I am of the belief that many of the new movies that are coming out are generally lacking in quality, so I turn to the random old movies that come my way. This time, it was a pick of my mother's: an extremely low-budget indie sci-fi flick called Brother From Another Planet.

The Brother, of course, is actually an alien from some distant planet, having crash-landed in the best place possible for him. See, when you look like a black human, Harlem is THE place to hide out from whatever inter-planetary foes you might have chasing you. The Brother fits the bill perfectly. He had no ability to speak, but he did have a number of other interesting and useful abilities- First, he could feel emotions connected to items. This leads to a number of odd revelations, such as the "Death Seat" in the bar that he ends up hanging out at a lot. The next is his ability to fix... ANYTHING. No matter what it is, he can fix it, be it electronics, video games, or even his own severed leg.

Much of the charm of this movie comes from how The Brother interacts with people. Without the ability to speak, it would seem as if he would lose a large part of his people skills, but it actually works to his advantage, as his inability to interrupt a conversation seems to be more of a catalyst than an impediment. Another interesting facet was the original point of the movie. The writer and director, John Sayles, intended for the movie to be about someone who looks like they fit in, but is actually completely lost. And what better place to do that than Harlem?

Brother From Another Planet may not be based on a comic book, but it definitely gives off that vibe when you watch it. I suggest it as a good watch for anyone that is into odd, off-beat cult sci-fi classics. Until Next Time...
02:57 PM PST Permalink |

Ratatouille- Disney For Grownups
With all of the especially good animation coming out of Japan, it's easy to forget that the States are home to a large number of skilled animators. And most of these animators work for Pixar, the company that does the animation for the latest generation of CG-animated Disney Movies. Ever since the massive hit that was Toy Story, Pixar has been producing such excellent pieces of animation as Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, and the latest in the line, Ratatouille. While primarily oriented for children, the movies that have been produced in recent years have begun to transcend the juvenile nature of the "Disney Movie" and come into their own as full-fledged movies for the people.

Patton Oswalt voices Remy, a rat living in the countryside of France... until his love for gourmet food and cooking gets him and his clan booted from their home, and into the underside of Paris- the home of gourmet cuisine. Upon arrival, however, he finds that the former restaurant and home of his cooking idol, Gusteau, has fallen into ruin. Formerly a five-star restaurant, it was heavily critiqued by Anton Ego, a highly influential food critic and nemesis of any chef that wants to be popular in Paris. The end result? Gusteau's was demoted to a three-star restaurant, and Gusteau himself lost heart and died. Now, just a couple of years after the tragic events, a new chef has arrived at Gusteau's, and while his skills may be sub-par, his determination combined with Remy's culinary ability and know-how may be able to save Gusteau's after all.

Ratatouille isn't nearly as much of a kid movie as the previous works were. The differences come in the way that the story is laid out. In every other movie, there's a clear villain- Sid in Toy Story, Darla in Finding Nemo, but none really in Ratatouille. Sure, there's the restaurant owner, as well as Anton Ego, the one that started it all, but they don't really bring the punch that other villains do. And it's not about some grand quest- it's about someone trying to do what they love, by any means necessary.

An excellent movie, Ratatouille deserves to be up there with the other Pixar classics. Until Next Time...
10:49 PM PST Permalink |