Review: True Grit

Over my Christmas break, I decided there were a number of movies I wanted to see.  It started out with about three and then grew into seven movies.  So far I have seen four of those movies and I'm catching up on reviews as we speak.  The movies are as followed: Black Swan; True Grit; Tron: Legacy; I Love You, Phillip Morris; The Fighter; The King's Speech; and 127 Hours.  Here is my review for True Grit.

I undoubtedly misconceived True Grit at first: I thought it may have been something along the lines of Jonah Hex except... well, good.  The only part I may have gotten right was the western aspect of the movie (that and the fact that Josh Brolin is in both).  True Grit tells the story of  Mattie Ross (Elizabeth Marvel), a young fourteen year old girl who is looking for Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) who murdered her father over a petty argument.  In her searching for Chaney, she decides to hire a U.S. Marshal to search for him, Chaney having left the town and no longer in the jurisdiction of local authorities.  The man she chooses to hire is Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), a man she later describes as having "true grit."  Cogburn initially turns her away and as Mattie waits for him to change her mind, Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Matt Damon) finds her and offers his assistance in capturing Chaney.

True Grit is the second adaption of Charles Portis' original novel of the same title, written in 1968, the first being the 1969 rendition starring John Wayne.  The movie is directed and produced by the Coen brothers and is also produced by Steven Spielberg.  While Joel Coen also directed The Big Lebowski (1998), Jeff Bridges character shows no signs of "The Dude."  In fact, the characters in True Grit are what make the movie so great.  Jeff Bridges' character, Rooster Cogburn, is gross, smelly, and, as he often describes himself, "fat and old."  However, the dry, often deadpan humor of Rooster lightens the barren wasteland that is the west.  In fact, what surprised me most about this movie was how much humor it actually contains: Bridges is hilarious throughout; the interactions of Damon and Bridges consist of them berating one other either for being either old and fat or for not being able to shut up; Mattie Ross even has her moments when she stuns the male leads with her quick witted tongue. 

While all of the lead actors do a stupendous job, what makes the movie feel so believable is the tertiary characters.  Lucky Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper), a gang leader traveling with Chaney, although only on screen for a short amount of time, is instantly recognized as a ruthless, cold blooded, yet intelligent killer.  Brolin, unfortunately, wasn't on screen for as long as I would have liked, but manages to convincingly transform himself into a slow, dumb man who only looks out for himself.  By far my favorite character in the movie, however, is one that Rooster and Mattie meet in passing known only as The Doctor (Ed Corbin), who wears a full bear skin coat, sells teeth, and tries to heal anyone who will allow him to come near.

The movie overall is a breath of fresh air.  It seems as though within this past year there has been a bit of a cowboy craze (what with Jonah Hex, Red Dead Redemption, and now True Grit) and True Grit, without doubt, makes for a meaningful and spirited revival of an old book.  The story is engaging, the cast is fantastic, and the overall mood is what it needs to be, which is convincing and authentic.  Bridges does an excellent job of being both disgusting and endearing and Marvel, while not the strongest performance overall, does an excellent job seeing as how this is her first full length feature film to date.  True Grit is more fun and comedic than I expected, yet still maintains the bad ass-ness I had originally anticipated;  All I have to say is that Jeff Bridges shoots people, a lot of people... and some cornbread too.

Review: Black Swan

There have been few movies this year that I have told myself I needed to see.  There have been even fewer of those movies that I have actually managed to drag myself out to see.  One of the movies that I knew I had to see this year was Black Swan.  Not only did the premise of the movie entice me, but evermore did the director.  Darren Aronofsky's last movie, The Wrestler (2008), was an incredible story of anguish and I still think, to this day, that Mickey Rourke should have won over Sean Penn for Best Actor.  Suffice to say, Aronofsky has taken a much more psychological twist with Black Swan; where The Wrestler crushed your spirit, Black Swan plays with your mind. 

Black Swan stars Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers, a veteran ballet dancer in New York city.  The movie begins at the start of another fiscal year for the dance studio and Portman is striving to be The White Swan in their production of Swan Lake.  However, once she arrives at the first day of rehearsal, her director, played by Vincent Cassel, informs them that instead of casting two people as the White Swan and the Black Swan, he will be casting one person as both.  Portman embodies the White Swan perfectly, but can't manage to carry the weight of the Black Swan.  As her director puts it, Portman is precise and has perfect form, but the Black Swan loses herself in dance and seduces the audience.  The entire movie goes through the motions of Portman struggling to embody both Swans at once and become the Swan Queen.

As the audience watches Portman's struggle it is often hard to tell what is reality and what is not.  Quickly you become aware that Portman's passion for dance is more of an obsession that engulfs each breath she takes, so much so that it beginning to take a toll on her body and mind.  This, without doubt, is the strongest part of the film.  You want Portman to succeed in becoming the Swan Queen, but in order for her to do so, you must watch her crush the person she once was and become someone entirely different.  The movie is wrought with emotion and Portman is convincing for each and every second of it.  Her supporting cast does a decent job as well, although it is clear that none are of the same caliber as Natalie Portman (save for Barbara Hersher, Portman's controlling mother and former dancer).  Mila Kunis doesn't do anything spectacular through out and is used more as a pivot point to facilitate Portman's gradual transformation. 

The cinematography of the entire film is great as are the special effects.  The cinematography plays with various angles and lighting effects which heighten the psychological thrill of the movie.  The special effects, while never exceptionally grand, meld into the scenery of the movie flawlessly and continue to play with the audience's mind.  However, possibly the strongest extra to the movie is its score.  While the whole movie is based around a ballet, the ever present symphony orchestra makes it seem as though Portman is constantly on stage.  As she runs through the streets of New York, she is contantly followed by the timbre of strings and brass. 

Black Swan, up to this point in time, is the best movie I have seen this year.  The concept and thrill is refreshing, as is each and every psychological twist.  Portman excels at the part she is given and I would be shocked not to see her name appear as a nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 2011 Academy Awards as it is easily her best performance to date.  (In fact, I would consider Portman winning an apology for Mickey Rourke not winning in 2008.)  Aronofsky's should also be up for Best Director, as should Clint Mansell, the composer of the film's score.  While the film may make some people uncomfortable and may leave others scratching their heads, it is undeniably one the best movies released this year and should be appreciated not only as an incredible film, but as a work of art.

2010 Game of the Year Preview

Alright, I wanted to get a jump start on this before everyone else starts coming out with their various Game of the Year talk.  With that being said, this year I have arguably played more video games than I ever have in my life, some from years past, but a large amount that were released this year.  While this isn't a comprehensive list of all of the games that are out there, I'm going to make a Game of the Year list to the best of my ability.  The list will include an overall Top 5 as well as three runner-ups.  In addition to those eight games, I will include other games that I have done research on, know are great, but haven't had the opportunity to play.  With that little intro out of the way, now I will go on a long, unorganized rant about the various games that I have played.  Before that though, I would like to mention, for those that read this blog or even this article, please, please, PLEASE give me your input.  I would like to know what YOU think the best games of the year are.  I will be putting a poll on the side of the page so you can leave your input, but I would also like you to leave comments with your opinion.  If I have enough feedback from people, I would like to do some sort of Viewer's Choice Award.  If anyone poses a strong enough argument as to what they think is the GOTY I will also give them a spotlight to share their opinion.  Please participate, I love talking about games, and I would love to hear from you.

Alright, off we go.

Needless to say, 2010 hurt my pocket book.  Not only did I buy roughly fifteen games over the course of the year, increasing my collection by over 50%, but the fact that I got a PS3 last Christmas allowed me to play catch up on all of the great PS3 exclusives.  Like I said in the previous paragraph, this isn't going to be a comprehensive list in the slightest; I play primarily 360 games, some PS3 exclusives, and a few PC games.  I don't play hardly any Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, iPhone, or anything else of the sort (although I think I covered my bases), if any at all.  To make things easier, let's start with a list of the games I've played this year that were released in 2010: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Bioshock 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Dante's Inferno, Dead Rising 2, Fallout: New Vegas, God of War III, Halo: Reach, Heavy Rain, Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption, and Star Craft 2.  It's a good thing I'm not doing a Top 10 because I would have to include every single game I've played with the runner ups.  So, let's start with a bit of jibber jabber, shall we?

I would have to say that the game that took me by surprise most would be Red Dead Redemption.  When this game was first being hyped up, I thought it was dumb.  A cowboy game seemed stupid to me and I didn't even know it was being made by Rockstar at the time.  All I kept associating it to was Red Dead Revolver which never really appealed to me.  Fortunately enough, the day came along when Red Dead Redemption got incredible reviews and I was forced to buy it.  I have to say that snagging that game was one of the best gaming decisions I have ever made.  Never before in a game have I actually stopped playing and said, "Wow... that's beautiful."  For example, after having crossed the border into Mexico, I got on my horse and started riding toward my objective.  As I slowly rose over a hill, I saw the purple sky covering the plains, with the faint burst of an orange sun setting behind the mountains.  All while this was happening, the sound effects of the game died down to a muffle and a soft, romantic song created specifically for the game was playing as I galloped toward my destination.  That scene was easily the most beautiful and most atmospheric of any game I have ever played.

Next, the game I probably had the most fun with was Mass Effect 2.  Like it's predecessor, ME2 is incredibly engaging.  The characters are fun and interesting, the story sucks you in, and the game play and graphics are great.  Not to mention they completely got rid of the atrocious vehicle aspect of the game, something that without doubt made the original Mass Effect suffer.  The game I couldn't put down was Heavy Rain.  The story kept you on your toes and while it may have been incredibly depressing (so much so that I had a friend stop playing for a bit because he needed a break) you have to know what is going to happen next.  More so than any game I have ever played I found myself rationalizing two, three, four times that "Ah... I'll just play this next part and then go to bed."  Before I knew it, it was five in the morning and I had beaten the game.  Another game worth mentioning that arguably had the grandest scale and best graphics is God of War III.  What was great about the conclusion to the epic trilogy was that the Kratos you saw in the movie cut scenes was the Kratos you played as (this was actually something the developers consciously tried to achieve).  Often developers have cut scenes with much better graphics than those in game because there isn't any extra coding needed; with in game graphics, there is tons of coding to make things move, respond, interact, etc., but with cut scenes it's just like watching a movie.  That being said, the graphics of the game are gorgeous and are only surpassed by the immense scale of the game as a whole.  Two particular instances place you scaling the sides of a Titan, a beast more than one hundred thousand times your size, a landscape that provides for an epic battle.

In terms of multiplayer, three game stand out above the rest: Halo: Reach, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops (consequently, all of which I have written a review for).  Reach manages to improve on its past multiplayer system by adding several customization options, as well a points system to level up rather than winning or losing matches.  Black Ops expanded on their system by adding currency that can be used to purchase upgrades rather than someone having to unlock them.  Furthermore, Black Ops took a hint from Halo and added the option for people to play with guests online (Finally!).  Bad Company 2 has arguably the most seamless online system with host failures and errors few and far between.  Getting onto a match has, for the most part, always been quick and painless.  Although, the online community doesn't seem nearly as engaging or friendly as Black Ops or Reach (in fact, I don't think I've ever heard anyone's voice in Bad Company 2).

Alright, well, that was just me going through the motions, giving you a taste of what I'm thinking.  Even more, this post is so I can let everyone know that I will be doing a Game of the Year post and that I would LOVE for people to participate.  The poll will be up shortly and if everyone could leave comments with their insights, I will respond as soon as possible with feedback.  This is both in hopes to get a bit of a community going on this forum, but also because I just like talking about games with people.  So, closer to the end of the year, most likely sometime after Christmas, I will be releasing my post about 2010's Top 5 Game's of the Year.  Depending on feedback I may add more categories, but we'll see what happens.  Until then, we will still be posting movie recommendations and reviews and I have a game review for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood that I want to crank out.  Hope to hear from you soon!

Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops

I can't remember a year in the past ten years when a Call of Duty game wasn't released, can you?  The Call of Duty franchise started out with primarily World War II based games, but more recently they've moved into more contemporary conflicts.  Over the past few years, two developers have switched back and forth every year with the Call of Duty name.  Arguably the most ground breaking Call of Duty series to date was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) developed by Infinity Ward.  The next game to come out was released by Treyarch, Call of Duty: World at War (2008), which still clung to the WWII genre, but added a new feature, Nazi Zombies.  The next year, 2009, Infinity Ward released Modern Warfare 2, which, while still maintaining a fantastic single player experience, had a revolutionary online multi-player system.  This year, Treyarch hyped up their newest release, Call of Duty: Black Ops.  Black Ops is Treyarch's first shot at a more modern game, but they took a spin on it and placed it during the Vietnam War. 

After all of the great Call of Duty games over the years and the numerous additions year after year, Black Ops had a lot riding on it and, for the most part, it has delivered.  I will admit, that before Black Ops came out, I was incredibly hesitant about buying it.  I never got World at War and I know a large reason most people got it was because of Nazi Zombies; essentially, the campaign was nothing special.  However, with Treyarch's newest addition, Black Ops has one of, if not the best, campaign of any Call of Duty game to date.  Like other CoD games, Black Ops switches you between several characters through out the game, but you play primarily as a special forces operative named Alex Mason.  This puts a huge fix on one large complaint I've had about the games over the years: while you come to love some of the characters, you never really identify with the character you play as.  The entirety of the plot is placed in the mind of Mason while he's strapped to a chair being interrogated by an ominous voice about "the numbers."  The in game graphics are incredible and some of the interactive scenes are really dynamic, expanding on those that were featured in MW2.  On top of that, the in-game characters are great, in particular Viktor Reznov, a former Red Army soldier that Mason befriends while held captive at Vorkuta Gulag.  The voice acting of Reznov is superb and the character developement makes you love him and defend him til the end.  Certain scenes are particularly nerve racking and almost eerie, so much so that I think Treyarch could make a very successful horror game. 

While the campaign is incredibly well done, the multi-player falls a little short.  While it has all of the elements of MW2s online play, for some reason the graphics are not nearly as good as the in-game graphics.  Something about it looks rough and unpolished.  One helicopter I saw looked so bad that it was more of an awkward green trapezoid than a helicopter.  To make matters worst, Black Ops has several host issues which have yet to be ironed out, making finding a match overly difficult, with players some times waiting more than ten minutes before they find someone to play with.  Where the multi-player falls short in graphics, it makes up in game play.  The wager system is a lot of fun, most notably the Gun Game in which, for each kill, you upgrade to a better gun.  Whoever gets 20 kills first wins and the top three players receive more credits than they put in.  The overall system is relatively the same as previous games with Team Death Match and other game types.  Players also have a wide array of customizable options ranging from their logo (which can be virtually anything from a kitten to a work of art consisting of various layers) to the type and color of your cross hairs.  Zombies is also a great addition, especially because with two players, you can play as JFK and Nixon. 

Call of Duty: Black Ops is definitely more impressive than I had initially anticipated.  The campaign is, in my opinion, the most exciting and engaging to date.  While the multi-player is essentially the same and has tons of customizable options as well as the wager system, the graphics are surprisingly lack luster and are no where near the quality of the in-game graphics.  Fortunately, Black Ops has several additions such as zombies and even a hidden arcade style game that make it more than worth your time and money.  Black Ops may not be the greatest Call of Duty game to date overall (in fact, according to Raptr, more people are currently playing Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare 2, and World at War), but it is definitely a game to add to your collection if not for the campaign alone.