I know that this review is super late, but its really hard to put into words how I feel about this movie. I liked it. I mean I more than liked it, but theres something in there not letting me say that I loved it. It’s so deep and detailed in some respects (visually and acoustically) but story wise its lacking, things seem to just happen. The story plays out like it’s on a rail, a light rail actually. So no matter what’s happening they never seem to be in any danger. Say what you want about Avatar, but at least the simple story made sense within the world. Some things in this play out like He-Man, where all his problems could be solved once he remembered… “Oh yeah, that’s right I’m He-Man!” and would just whip everyones ass. It’s like when you see those great pictures of super modern architecture or furniture designs and think “wow that looks so awesome” but then you realize that it’s missing all the things that make a house a home. Pictures of family, interesting tchotchkes, and just any evidence that someone actually lives there. It’s the same thing with this movie, they spent all the time designing the new cool vehicles, (and don’t get me wrong, they are kick ass awesome) but they don’t spend any time on the how or why they eat food or what they serve in that bar. Or why the programs would want to drink at a bar in the first place, it’s all very surface level.

Shiny pretty surface level.

Schu-Review: 3.5 out of 5 Schus

Let me be clear about this right up front, I like this game. I think it is fun. It’s just that NBA JAM comes squarely from Frustration city USA. I really want to like it more as they have captured the game play of the original EXACTLY. Unfortunately they also captured the most frustrating elements of the old version. Like many games of it’s generation NBA JAM was severely lacking in the AI department and it plays like there is some dial that the computer is using that just has two settings ‘do nothing’ or ‘make it impossible to stop’. I have to admit that I’ve never been that good at the game anyway so that might account for my frustration.

I’ve started the career mode on Easy (because that’s the default setting).  I’ve played about 15 games and have won them all, right now I’m trying to beat the computer by double their points and thus unlock Danny Manning. Because that’s all there seems to be to this game is unlocking characters by doing things (10 blocks, etc)

more stuff after the break… featuring charts!

Read more

I was talking to a friend about the existence of this album and the first thing he said was ‘I’ve always wanted to like Damian Marley but he’s not hard enough for me.’ which I thought was strange because I’ve always wanted to like Nas but I thought he wasn’t ‘Musical’ enough. I like his lyrics, but sometimes his beats are kind of basic and his choruses are lacking. But he’s from the streets, YO. So this is the album for both of us.

It starts out with a bang. ‘As we enter’ is the classic hip-hop “who we are” song, with an interesting beat and lyrics. Lots of back and forth between the two. Marley really ups his lyric game on this track. Starts the album with a bang, really gets you going. I love this song.

[Damian Marley]
Masuri Sana
Switch up the language and move to Ghana

[Nas]
Salute and honor, real revolution rhymers

[Damian Marley]
Rhythm piranhas

[Nas]
Like true Obamas, unfold the drama

It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but this is my favorite song on the album. The album as a whole follows a track where it starts out loud and fast and then each song gets more mellow. There are a few really good songs ‘Strong Will Continue’ , ‘Land of Promise’ , and ‘Friends’. But with the statement it makes when it first starts I wish that it could have maintained that energy level through the whole thing. But I guess that is the melding of these two styles. It’s still a great album, put it on and chill out for 45 minutes.

4 out of 5 Schus

Cage The Elephant.

I just became aware of this band a few months ago. I had heard the single “Back Against the Wall” on DC101 a few times and I’d always missed who it was by. Finally I was able to pull out the old Shazam app and figure out who it was. I got the album… It is awesome.

It’s full of driving bass lines and strong drums. Mixed with whining guitars and a distinctive vocal style. It’s a throwback sound to , and I can’t believe I’m saying this… The 90s. It remind me of STP mixed with The Strokes. The singles are a mix of almost nonsensical artsy lyrics with shoutable choruses over energetic guitar driven rock music.

In this age of Itunes singles if an CD has more than 3 listenable songs then it’s considered good. This one has at least 4, which takes it into classic territory.

I love it!

Best song – Three way tie!

4.8 out of 5 Schus

I would say that 95% of cheap sunglasses make you look like Tom Cruise’s retarded brother. But every once in a while you find that magical 5% that are both cheap and cool and also don’t fold like their made of solder when you have them in your pocket.  It makes you feel good every time you look in the mirror and you see yourself looking slightly cooler and know that you didn’t spend an inappropriate amount of money on these things. I’m sure my optometrist friend would tell me that they aren’t protecting my eyes from all types of radiation. But the sticker on them did say that they block UV A & B rays… so until they discover C rays, I’m good.

Rule one of my “New rules for cheap things” is

1. If it’s under $10 and it works for you, buy two.

So I bought 2 pairs.

They have a website, where you can’t actually by anything. I think it’s more for retailers to find out about the line. But hey, if I’m going to tell you about the virtues of a $11 product I can at least tell you what it is.

StyleScience “Contour” – Bought at CVS Pharmacy in DC $10.99

4 out of 5 Schus

StyleScience.com

So I’d had Dear Zachary on my Netflix queue for a while and I’d just put off watching it for a while because I knew partially what it was about and you have to be in the right mood to watch a movie about a dead friend.  I’d read positive reviews online and I quite like documentaries so I thought I would enjoy it. I enjoy true crime stuff, my mom raised me on those “Dateline NBC special reports” about sisters who murder their parents and the ensuing trial. But I don’t think I was really prepared for this film. It was a weekend when Laurel was out of town, because she never wants to watch all the depressing movies that I rent. Going into the movie I only knew that his friend had been murdered and he wanted to make a documentary about him that he could show his unborn son. Here’s my thoughts that I wrote down just after the movie ended.

There’s just this incredible sadness after watching this movie. You want to believe the filmmaker’s words that the film had became a tribute to Andrews parents, but really? Maybe there’s just nothing you can say about a situation like that. I mean the movie builds for about an hour and 15 minutes before they drop the shock on you.  I have NEVER felt shock like that in a movie, maybe because in a FILM you know it didn’t really happen. You can tell yourself that this is all a dream and the monsters aren’t real. But this really happened, the monsters are real. They live with us every day. They are that guy “who just never seemed right” they are all around us every day. I just don’t know how to feel about this… On one hand I want everyone to feel that kind of loss when I die. I want to be the kind of person that would inspire people to film a documentary about me.  I want the outpouring of affection, but I just feel so empty inside after this movie. I really feel for them, I don’t even know this person or his family and I REALLY feel for them. I’m having a real emotional response that I’ve never had watching a movie. It’s tough to get to know someone and then have them taken away from you, even if it’s just on film.

What can I do?

I’m gonna go watch Ghostbusters.

That’s still how I feel a month after I watched that movie. I’m not going to reccomend anyone watch this movie, it’s a good film. It’s one of those movies like Requiem for a Dream^W that you only have to watch once. But I have no idea what kind of mood you need to be in to appreciate it. I wouldn’t watch it on your happiest day, because it would ruin your day. But I wouldn’t want to be too depressed going into it, because you might end it all.

Schu-Review : 4 out of 5 Schus