PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: September 2016

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•  Dead Rising
•  Dead Rising 2
•  Resident Evil 4 Remastered

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: August 2016

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•   Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
•   F1 2016
•   Marvel Ultimate Alliance
•  Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Jason Bourne (2016) – 5/10 action thriller movie review

Jason Bourne (2016)

Bourne has been living off-the-grid but Nicky Parsons learns of another ethically dubious black op training program and contacts Bourne. What she doesn’t know is that Bourne has been replaced with an indestructible cyborg replica.

5/10

Morose and completely unconvincing action thriller that sees an indestructible Jason Bourne do impossible things for next to no reason while Tommy Lee Jones scowls from behind a Tommy Lee Jones scrotum mask that has been left out in the sun for a hundred years. If they had revealed that his head had been a walnut all along, it would have been more believable than the drek the filmmakers want us to go along with here. Now, a lot of the action is alright, undoubtedly ambitious (a bike chase through a riot is incredibly impressive logistically) and some of it is genuinely thrilling but it’s not enough to distract from the uninvolving characters and story. I think this franchise would have been better off leaving the trilogy and Treadstone arc alone and continued as an A-Team, Knight Rider or Incredible Hulk thing where Bourne swans into a town or someone’s life with a problem and helps eliminate it before moving on. Instead, this is the Crystal Skulls of the Bourne franchise that we’ll probably try and just overlook.

Content Summary

This movie contains extreme violence, gory and unpleasant scenes

Classified 12A by BBFC. Persons under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

Cast / crew

Director, Producer and Writer: Paul Greengrass
Editor, Executive Producer and Writer: Christopher Rouse
Characters Creator: Robert Ludlum
Jason Bourne / David Webb: Matt Damon
Actor and Producer: Matt Damon
Tommy Lee Jones: CIA Director Robert Dewey
Alicia Vikander: Heather Lee
Vincent Cassel: Asset
Julia Stiles: Nicky Parsons
Riz Ahmed: Aaron Kalloor
Producer: Frank Marshall
Producer: Gregory Goodman
Producer: Ben Smith
Producer: Jeffrey M. Weiner

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: July 2016

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•   Carmageddon: Max Damage
•   Resident Evil 5

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: June 2016

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•   Dangerous Golf
•   Mighty No. 9
•   Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst
•   The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) – 7/10 science fiction fantasy action adventure movie review

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Luke Skywalker has disappeared. No-one knows why. In his and all Jedi’s absence, the evil First Order has risen to be within a hair’s breadth of taking control of the galaxy. No-one knows why. At this critical stage, both the Resistance and First Order are after one thing: a map containing the location of Luke Skywalker. No-one knows why.

7/10

J.J. Abrams treads accurately in the sandy footprints of George Lucas with this fan service-packed remake of Star Wars. While it’s action is immediately forgettable due to Abrams choosing not to give it a shape or story of it’s own and suffers badly in comparison with the Death Star attack from the original (which remains one of the greatest action sequences of all time; it’s always clear what they’re trying to do and why this piece of action on screen now is helping to accomplish that while naturally building and focusing on the one critical path), Abrams has come up trumps with Daisy Ridley and John Boyega and gone the extra mile with the three lead characters (the aforementioned and Harrison Ford) and villain Kylo Ren. He also oversaw a perfect trailer campaign with no story spoilers or even hints. While he doesn’t keep temporal or spatial control of his story (people can do anything in any amount of time and appear wherever they need to) and fumbles the codas, Abrams has otherwise made an efficient, furiously-paced, fun adventure. (As a side note, I don’t know why it’s 12A, PG would have been fine)

Content Summary

This movie contains violence, violent interrogation scenes

Classified 12A by BBFC. Persons under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

Cast / crew

Director, Producer and Writer: J.J. Abrams
Writer: Lawrence Kasdan
Writer: Michael Arndt
Characters Creator: George Lucas
Producer: Kathleen Kennedy
Producer: Bryan Burk
Music: John Williams
Han Solo: Harrison Ford
Luke Skywalker: Mark Hamill
Princess Leia Organa: Carrie Fisher
Kylo Ren: Adam Driver
Rey: Daisy Ridley
Finn (Star Wars): John Boyega
Poe Dameron: Oscar Isaac
Lupita Nyong’o: Maz Kanata
Supreme Leader Snoke: Andy Serkis
Domhnall Gleeson: General Hux
C-3PO: Anthony Daniels
Max von Sydow: Lor San Tekka

Ex Machina (2015) – 6/10 science fiction movie review

Ex Machina (2015)

Hot-shot programmer Caleb is taken to super genius Nathan’s subterranean glacier hideaway to see if Nathan has managed to produce an artificial intelligence-driven robot that can be considered indistinguishable from a human.

6/10

I can see why this received an enthusiastic critical reception as it is a slow burn science fiction movie that takes a big idea (can an AI perform in a manner indistinguishable from a human) and packages it for a mass audience. The problem, for me, is that it overlooks making any character whom you want to watch. Domhnall Gleeson speaks in movie sound bites, Oscar Isaac is an uncharismatic and repulsive genius with a silly beard and Alicia Vikander is, impressively, unreadable and manipulative as the plot demands. (It also forgets it’s own plot point at the end whereby all the doors unlock when the power goes out.) However, the Oscar-winning visual effects work is flawless and I suspect it is going to be quietly memorable.

Content Summary

This movie contains sexual swear words, strong adult dialogue, full female nudity, graphic violence

Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over.

Cast / crew

Domhnall Gleeson: Caleb
Alicia Vikander: Ava
Sonoya Mizuno: Kyoko
Oscar Isaac: Nathan
Director and Writer: Alex Garland
Producer: Andrew MacDonald
Producer: Allon Reich

The Jungle Book (2016) – 7/10 adventure movie review

The Jungle Book (2016)

When Shere Khan learns of the prescence of mancub Mowgli – who has been brought up by wolves after being discovered in the jungle – he vows to kill him as soon as the current drought-enforced peace treaty ends. When the waters return, so does Khan with a terrible fury.

7/10

Slightly subdued but otherwise very nicely executed adaptation of both Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 book and Walt Disney’s 1967 film The Jungle Book. Neel Sethi is great as Mowgli while the animal cast is uncharismatic (especially when compared to the 1967 film) but fine. The two songs are integrated well but performed without much life or energy. The main talking point is how wonderful the visual effects achievement is; while not perfect (Kaa is not up to the standard of the furry animals, every animal’s but especially Shere Khan’s face looks too big and his entrance has some slightly wrong animation of him dropping down ledges), it instantly suspends disbelief, the flora and fauna are completely convincing and the furry animals (especially the wolf Raksha) look stunning most of the time. I also very much liked the opening multi-plane-esque hand-drawn animated Walt Disney logo. A highly worthwhile remake which may become a touchstone for a new audience.

Content Summary

This movie contains violence

Classified PG by BBFC. Parental Guidance.

Cast / crew

Director and Producer: Jon Favreau
Screenplay Writer: Justin Marks
Book Writer: Rudyard Kipling
Mowgli: Neel Sethi
Baloo: Bill Murray
Bagheera: Ben Kingsley
Shere Khan: Idris Elba
King Louie: Christopher Walken

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: May 2016

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•   Dead Island: The Definitive Collection
•   Dirt Rally
•   Doom (2016)
•  Homefront: The Revolution
•   Lichdom: Battlemage
•   Overwatch
•  Shadow Complex Remastered

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) – 5/10 superhero action movie review

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

When the Superman / Zod battle causes his Metropolis tower to collapse, Bruce Wayne knows that, even though Superman is clearly benevolent, Batman needs to kill him because Superman might go bad one day. Meanwhile, the US Government give Lex Luthor the keys to the crashed Kryptonian spaceship in return for him crafting a silver bullet to keep Superman in check but then they don’t let him import the kryptonite to make the bullet but continue to let him play on the spaceship even though that was payment for something they won’t let him do.

5/10

We should seriously consider the possibility that Zack Snyder is incapable of telling a story via the medium of film which, for a film director, might be expected to be a problem. Instead of conversations, he has people speaking words in close proximity to other people and occasionally changes the background if you squint and look over people’s shoulders. Ben Affleck’s Batman is striking, if dumb. Henry Cavill is fine as Superman and gets a couple of useful super-moments when the Batmobile bounces off him and when he catches a giant bullet. This movie had potential and Snyder does allocate enough time to story and character and motivation but doesn’t make any of it stick. Why does Batman want to kill Superman? Why does Lex Luthor want Superman dead? I suspect Snyder has shot enough footage to make a really good movie but he hasn’t guided it successfully through the editing process. And, to be honest, I don’t think he can. The Ultimate Edition is just similarly dumb for an imperceptible extra half-hour.

Content Summary

This movie contains bad language, extreme violence, non-sexual nudity

Classified 12A by BBFC. Persons under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

Cast / crew

Director: Zack Snyder
Superman / Clark Kent / Kal-El: Henry Cavill
Batman / Bruce Wayne: Ben Affleck
Wonder Woman / Diane Prince: Gal Gadot

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: March 2016

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•  Dark Souls 3
•   Hitman (2016)
•  Resident Evil 6
•  The Division
•  Trackmania Turbo

Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) – 2/10 action movie review

Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

A Texas inventor buys a fully busted truck that was inside a derelict cinema and pulls a missile out of it that allows it to turn back into Optimus Prime but an inter-galactic bounty hunter, Lockdown, is working with the CIA to capture Optimus Prime and so the glistening, muscular inventor / robotics engineer / elite hacker and his good-looking daughter / really, really good-looking daughter / rally co-driver go on the run with Prime and end up saving the world. And there will be robot dinosaurs. The end.

2/10

This is an atrocious film on almost every level except visual effects and Mark Wahlberg. It would be a challenge to find more than a few subsequent lines that are coherent let alone compelling characters, involving storylines or comprehensible action sequences. Somehow, Wahlberg rises above all that and remains a quality, likable presence despite what the movie bafflingly puts him through. I don’t know what kind of secret sauce ILM keep back for Michael Bay but however Bay photographs his plates and however ILM’s artists up their game for him results in some utterly remarkable visuals: convincing, photo-realistic and extremely good-looking. Between them they produce the best visual effects explosions in the business; you cannot tell which explosions are real and which are not. Now, it would be accurate to state that the movie didn’t need to be good in order to fulfil it’s purpose – make money – but there was also no need for it to be this derisory.

Content Summary

This movie contains a single sexual swear word, bad language, strong violence, sensuality

Classified 12A by BBFC. Persons under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

Cast / crew

Director and Executive Producer: Michael Bay
Writer: Ehren Kruger
Producer: Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Producer: Tom DeSanto
Producer: Don Murphy
Producer: Ian Bryce
Mark Wahlberg: Cade Yeager
Stanley Tucci: Joshua Joyce
Kelsey Grammer: Harold Attinger
Nicola Peltz: Tessa Yeager
Jack Reynor: Shane Dyson
Sophia Myles: Darcy Tirrel
Li Bing Bing: Su Yueming
Titus Welliver: James Savoy
T.J. Miller: Lucas Flannery
Peter Cullen: Optimus Prime
Frank Welker: Galvatron
John Goodman: Hound
Ken Watanabe: Drift
Robert Foxworth: Ratchet
John DiMaggio: Crosshairs
Mark Ryan: Lockdown
Reno Wilson: Brains

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: February 2016

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•   Far Cry: Primal
•   Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
•   Rocket League

Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus (PS3 exclusive, 2013) – 8/10 action game review

Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus (2013)

Ratchet, Clank, Kronk and Zephyr are transporting intergalactic baddie Zendra Prog to prison when her brother catches up to them and breaks her out. Ratchet and Clank wind up marooned on a nearby planet and have to catch Zendra and put her back where she belongs. However, they’re going to need help from an unexpected source.

8/10

Into the Nexus‘ constantly evolving gameplay features lots of toys, lots of fun and lots of quality shooting; there’s so much opportunity for majestic overkill. It helps that these adventures are always good-natured in tone with a friendly feeling between Ratchet and Clank, smack-talking henchmen who aren’t above receiving a good jump-scare and even a scene where someone keeps their word and goes to prison willingly. Nexus‘ antagonists Vendra and Neftin Prog are good value but no Dr. Nefarious. It’s such a shame that the frame rate doesn’t remain smooth; Ratchet and Clank really should be prioritising a 60 frames per second update yet Nexus doesn’t maintain 30. Though it feels impressively frenetic and remains playable, the 30 fps at best means that it is difficult to track anything on screen.

Content Summary

This game contains violence

Cast / crew

Ratchet: James Arnold Taylor
Clank: David Kaye

Links

• Previous: Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: January 2016

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•  The Crew: Wild Run
•   Resident Evil Zero HD

Godzilla (2015) – 2/10 monster movie review

Godzilla (2014)

15 years after an incident at his nuclear power plant in Japan, not-at-all Japanese engineer Joe Brody insists that this was caused by something other than the official earthquake. Nobody ever noticed the bright lights or hundreds of workers at the accident site, so Joe is stunned when he breaks in to the danger area to retrieve some floppy disks and is taken to the top secret installation that has been built instead of the police station like he was the day before yesterday. Fortunately, everybody working at the super-secret base is as stupid as he is and they join forces to ride a tsunami of stupidity all the way back to San Francisco.

2/10

Relentlessly stupid monster movie which, for some baffling reason, thinks we didn’t really want to see a Godzilla fight (perhaps because they were misled by the success of Cloverfield, whose monster turns up here as the antagonists). Instead of a story we get to watch charisma vacuum Aaron Taylor-Johnson keep falling over and looking at things, usually while welling up. Ken Watanabe also looks terribly upset to be in this movie so he’s probably here as some kind of ransom demand. Godzilla’s closing move is good (I’ll give you a star for that) but there’s no shape or story to the non-battle preceding it and the visual effects have no impact; nobody cares when your 50th skyscraper gets smashed to pieces. What’s surprising is how closely this echoes Roland Emmerich’s widely, easily and deservedly criticised 1998 film. It has the same title sequence, same Godzilla underwater city approach and similarly-themed monster babies climax but it doesn’t have the fun, entertaining, spectacular Godzilla action sequences nor the expert build-up.

Content Summary

This movie contains mild unpleasant scenes

Classified 12A by BBFC. Persons under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

Cast / crew

Director: Gareth Edwards
Aaron Taylor-Johnson: Ford Brody
Ken Watanabe: Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
Elizabeth Olsen: Elle Brody
Juliette Binoche: Sandra Brody
Sally Hawkins: Vivienne Graham
David Strathairn: Admiral William Stenz
Bryan Cranston: Joe Brody
Producer: Thomas Tull
Producer: Jon Jashni
Producer: Mary Parent
Producer: Brian Rogers
Story Writer: David Callaham
Screenplay Writer: Max Borenstein

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: December 2015

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•   Just Cause 3
•   Rainbow Six: Siege

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: November 2015

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•   Call of Duty: Black Ops III
•   Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition
•   Fallout 4
•   Need for Speed (2015)
•   Star Wars: Battlefront (2015)

LEGO Jurassic World (2015, PS4) – 7/10 family action puzzle game review

LEGO Jurassic World (2015)

7/10

More of the same with the odd good gag (there’s a terrific Jaws gag in the The Lost World segment that I almost wish had been in the actual movie) but while the tinkle of collected LEGO studs and minifig animation remains as delightful as ever (the diving animation is hilarious the first time you see it and adorable every time after that and the bald caps are wonderful), the core gameplay sadly requires no thought or attention at all. This isn’t light puzzling; collect A, B, and C and take them to D isn’t a puzzle, it’s following a list of instructions. Unfortunately, fun, readable puzzles are time-consuming and difficult to come up with and TT Games are busy squirting a few of these out every year. The general absence of rewarding gameplay in the last few years of LEGO games should be hurting the franchise more but although the game part has all but disappeared the charm has not.

Content Summary

This game contains violence, unpleasant and scary scenes

Cast / crew

Director: Jon Burton

Links

• Gaming Bolt Head-to-Head: PS4 / Xbox One

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: October 2015

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•   Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate
•  Pro Evolution Soccer 2016
•   Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5
•   Transformers: Devastation

PS4 vs Xbox One and PS3 vs Xbox 360 Head-to-Head Face Off: September 2015

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•  Dishonored Definitive Edition
•  FIFA 16
•   Mad Max
•   Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Seventh Generation

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the publications icons for a very quick summary.

•  Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: August 2015

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. These are this months updates to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•   Prototype
•   Prototype 2
•   Zombi

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: July 2015

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. These are this months updates to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•   F1 2015
•   LEGO Jurassic World
•  Ride

Bang Bang! (2014) – 7/10 action musical romance movie review

Buy Bang Bang! at Amazon

Cast / crew Writer (Original Film) Knight and Day: Patrick O’Neill Hrithik Roshan: Rajveer Nanda Katrina Kaif: Harleen Sahani Pavan Raj Malhotra: Zorawar Kalwa Danny Denzongpa: Omar Zafar Javed Jaffrey: Hamid Gul Screenplay Writer: Sujoy Ghosh Screenplay Writer: Suresh Nair Writer (Dialogue): Abbas Tyrewala Director: Siddarth Anand

Bang Bang! (2014) A bank receptionist winds up on the most thrilling blind date ever with an international thief who is wanted dead by both sides of the law. 7/10 Tremendously entertaining, energetic and almost ridiculously good-looking action thriller that suffers from the same problem as Tom Cruise original Knight and Day in that the romance simply doesn’t work when the hero kills scores of dudes in the action scenes (at least they’re all baddies here). While women may like excitement and Hrithik Roshan with his shirt off (blimey), they probably aren’t amazingly thrilled when people are being shot and beaten to death right in their face or with being drugged and kidnapped. Repeatedly. (It’s also rather more violent than you might expect a 12A to be.) However, this is a film that works despite incoherence and ridiculousness. The action is fantastically cool, there’s a flyboarding action sequence which is a first, a GP2 car makes a surprise appearance, the songs are fine and look amazing and the wonderfully supple and charismatic Roshan keeps taking his shirt off and dancing to endlessly astonishing effect. This movie contains extreme violence, bad language, sensuality Classified 12A by BBFC. Persons under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Links Knight and Day review Bang Bang closing credits music video Tu Meri from Bang Bang music sequence

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: June 2015

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•   Batman: Arkham Knight
•   Devil May Cry 4
•   Payday 2: Crimewave Edition
•   The Elders Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited
•  Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

Slightly Mad Studios entirely maddening gamepad control in Project CARS (PS4, Dualshock 4)

Project CARS

Slightly Mad Studios have produced driving games with arguably the most intense and thrilling driving experiences available: Need for Speed: Shift, Shift 2: Unleashed, Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends and now Project CARS.

They all have something in common: nearly undrivable gamepad control out of the box. Amazingly, they are clearly aware of this and so consistently and uniquely offer a bewildering array of unexplained, sometimes cryptically named sliders that allow you to fine tune the controls to your preference.

Project CARS on PS4’s Dualshock 4 is no exception and it took around 18 hours of play before I finally got a controller setup I was happy with. Here it is:

Gameplay / Authenticity

• Steering Assistance: No
• Braking Assistance: No
• Anti-Lock Brakes: Yes
• Stability Control: Yes
• Traction Control: Yes

Controls / Configuration

Go down and set this first:

• Controller Input Mode: 2
• Advanced: Off

then

• Steering Deadzone: 0
• Steering Sensitivity: 0
• Throttle Deadzone: 0
• Throttle Sensitivity: 5
• Brake Deadzone: 5
• Brake Sensitivity: 30
• Clutch Deadzone: 13
• Clutch Sensitivity: 45
• Speed Sensitivity: 65
• Controller Filtering Sensitivity: 65

It’s making the game most enjoyable again and if you’re looking for a gamepad setup for Project CARS I hope it helps.

Police Story 2013 | Police Story: Lockdown (2013,2015) – 6/10 Jackie Chan hostage crime thriller movie review

Buy Police Story 2013 | Police Story: Lockdown at Amazon

Cast / crew Producer: Jerry Ye Producer: Lu Zheng Director, Editor and Screenplay Writer: Ding Sheng Jackie Chan: Zhong Wen Liu Ye: Wu Jiang Jing Tian: Miao Miao Liu Hai Long: Pi Song Zhou Xiao Ou: Wei Xiao Fu Yu Rong Guang: Captain Wu Wu Yue: A Yue Liu Pei Qi: Chief Zhang

Police Story 2013 | Police Story: Lockdown (2013) Policeman Zhong Wen is invited by his estranged daughter, Miao Miao, to meet at a nightclub as she wants to tell him something important but a hostage situation unexpectedly explodes and Wen will be required to go above and beyond his professional duty. 6/10 There’s enough of dramatic interest to make some stretches of Police Story 2013 tense, interesting and quite good. Sadly, the area where the film falls down is in the action. Poor compositing replaces what would have been done with stuntmen for real in Chan’s heyday (arguably New Police Story (2004) is the last great Jackie Chan action movie though The Myth (2005) contains the last great Jackie Chan action scene – rat glue factory); watching an old man, Jackie Chan, get beaten up is in no way fun and it’s also almost distressing to see his fight scenes have fully degenerated into Hollywood-style editing blurs to disguise the lack of any actual technique or speed. This movie contains strong violence, gory and unpleasant scenes

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) – 5/10 adventure romance movie review

Buy The Secret Life of Walter Mitty at Amazon

Cast / crew Producer: Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. Producer: John Goldwyn Actor and Producer Greenland Air Passenger: Stuart Cornfeld Kristen Wiig: Cheryl Melhoff Shirley MacLaine: Edna Mitty Adam Scott: Ted Hendricks Kathryn Hahn: Odessa Mitty Patton Oswalt: Todd Maher Adrian Martinez: Hernando Ólafur Darri Ólafsson: Helicopter Pilot Sean Penn: Sean O’Connell Actor, Director and Producer: Ben Stiller Walter Mitty: Ben Stiller Screen Story and Screenplay Writer: Steven Conrad Short Story Writer: James Thurber

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) Walter Mitty is prone to zoning out and imagining a more exciting life for himself and his romantic crush, coworker Cheryl Melhoff. When he needs to find a lost photo negative for the cover of Life magazine, instead of looking in the most obvious place, he embarks on a crazy real-life adventure. 5/10 It feels mean to give a virtually non-violent, positive, good-natured movie an average score but it never really engages the viewer beyond the most perfunctory level. Mitty’s flights of fantasy are somewhat bewildering and the real adventure has no impact; it looks less impressive than it should given the scenarios and locations and feels flat. Additionally, the plot and most of the events feel very unconvincing; whether this is by design or not (i.e., if the majority of the movie is a flight of fantasy) isn’t really the point as it is still important to suspend the audience’s disbelief. The best flight of fantasy, and probably strongest moment, is one where Kristen Wiig appears and sings a song and Ben Stiller gets on a real helicopter; no special effects, no explosions, no frenetic action editing. This movie contains bad language, strong violence Classified PG by BBFC. Parental Guidance.

PS4 vs Xbox One Head-to-Head Face Off: May 2015

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This is the latest update to the full list and you can hover over the web site icon for a very quick summary.

•   Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty
•   Project CARS
•   The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Real Steel (2011) – 2/10 robot boxing movie review

Buy Real Steel at Amazon

Cast / crew Director and Producer: Shawn Levy Hugh Jackman: Charlie Kenton Dakota Goyo: Max Kenton Evangeline Lilly: Bailey Tallet Anthony Mackie: Finn Kevin Durand: Ricky Hope Davis: Aunt Debra Producer: Don Murphy Producer: Susan Montford Short Story Writer: Richard Matheson Actor and Screenplay Writer Kingpin: John Gatins Story Writer: Dan Gilroy Story Writer: Jeremy Leven

Real Steel (2011) Incompetent scumbag robot fighter Charlie Kenton sells custody of his child to replace a smashed robot but is forced to take the boy with him for a couple of months so that the couple that bought him can have a nice holiday. Charlie immediately gets his new robot smashed to pieces and so sets about stealing enough parts to repair him all the while heroically lambasting the boy for even existing then leaving him to get arrested in a scrapyard. Against all the odds, things only become less convincing from here. 2/10 This Rocky with robots overlooked something extremely important: Rocky was an amiable, loving, recognisable human being. Rocky here is split into three characters: Hugh Jackman, a kid and a robot. The robot isn’t anything; he should have become iconic but his design is bland and half-hearted and everyone lazily pronounces his name as Adom instead of Atom. Hugh Jackman and the kid are unpleasant, gigantically unconvincing and incoherently portrayed. It sometimes feels like the kid has the adult’s lines, the tone is all over the place, scenes don’t logically follow each other. This is also the first movie I’ve seen where Hugh Jackman’s performance is bad, partially because his tone, intensity and attitude (like everyone elses) vacillate wildly through what are supposed to be subsequent scenes. The slo-mo teary-eyed climax is audacious in its unearned arrogance. There is, however, a cool scene worth watching in the movie and, fortunately, it’s right at the beginning as Hugh Jackman’s robot fights a bull. Once that’s done, you can go home. This movie contains extreme robot violence, strong human violence, sensuality Classified 12A by BBFC. Persons under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.