Pixels and Thoughts » Schu-Review

Schu-Review : Tron Legacy

admin — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:00:01 +0000

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

Schu-Review : NBA Jam-a-lamma Ding Dong

admin — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 23:02:14 +0000

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!

Here’s how a typical game has gone, recently.
Wizards (Andre Blatche – Minute Bol)

Spurs (Tim Duncan – Tony Parker)

first 32-4
second 37-24
third 54-38
final 64-50

Now you could say this was because I was playing the Spurs which are a pretty good team, but this same kind of thing happens against teams like the Clippers.

I didn’t suddenly get shittier after the first quarter. I was getting a Minute Bol block party in the first and then suddenly he grows roots and becomes poster fodder in the second and third. Apparently when you get up about 20 points the computer decides to flip the dial to ‘Block Everything’ and can just own you at any moment. No matter what you do you get blocked every time and they make every shot… its very frustrating.

It’s not as bad as NBA Jam knockoff ‘NBA Hangtime’ for N64 where no matter how much you were up the computer would ALWAYS come back and ALWAYS make a full court shot in the final second… and I mean ALWAYS. But it’s more like Need for Speed where you could be driving like you were drunk and blind and somehow be right behind the leaders going into the final stretch.

All I’m asking for is a little more consistency… at least on Easy.

Update: The consistency is apparently on the ‘Normal’ difficulty where they play similar to the second quarter in this game the whole time and you really have to be on your defense the whole time of they can get out of control easily.

The only things that are wrong with this game are that the AI kind of sucks and that it plays esactly like a game that came out around 1993. So it’s a little hard to pay full price for it knowing how deep other games are out there for this generation of consoles. But these can be solved by having friends to play with and waiting until it goes on sale to buy it. I’ll have to play it a little more to get a definative review score, but early reports are in and I give it…

4 out of 5 Schus

Schu-Review : Nas and Damian Marley – Distant Relatives

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:49:24 +0000

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

Schu-Review : Cage the Elephant

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:43:59 +0000

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!

In One Ear by Cage the Elephant

More Cage the Elephant music on iLike

Aint No Rest For The Wicked by Cage the Elephant

More Cage the Elephant music on iLike

Back Against The Wall by Cage the Elephant

More Cage the Elephant music on iLike

4.8 out of 5 Schus

Cheap sunglasses for the win

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:46:18 +0000

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

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

My notes about Dear Zachary

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:15:45 +0000

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

Alice? Alice? Who the @&$! Is Alice?

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:13:35 +0000

Last night Laurel and I ventured out of our own little rabbit hole and went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D at Fairfax Corner. She had been bugging me for weeks to see this, I had been interested but I had fears of it being like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory^W. Which I did not like…

So which was it? Terrible or Awesome?

Find out more after the break?

But have no fear few people reading this blog! Mr Burton is back in his Big Fish form! (which I think was his best movie). I was afraid that the movie would be too twisted for it’s own good, that it would trade shock for story. But the characters, despite being mutant freaks have hearts and real depth. Not that there are a shortage of twisted parts, severed heads, dragons, extra creepy rabbits. I have to admit I’m not exactly a Wonderphile (someone who is a fan of Alice in Wonderland as a genre) So I know about parts of the stories, but I’m really familiar with the Disney Cartoon. So there’s something strange about the translation from cartoon to live action fantasy film. For me it’s a little like the Twilight Zone movie mixed with Roger rabbit, scary at one moment and funny the next.

I think my unfamiliarity with the back story and the fact that I haven’t seen the cartoon version in a long time made the film extra interesting for me. I really didn’t know what was going to happen next. I was unsure what parts were from the original story and which were added in. I heard Tim Burton say that he didn’t intend this as a sequel, but that’s all that I can imagine it as. But in the sense that Hook is a sequel to Peter Pan.

With Katherine Bigelow^W winning the Best director Oscar the other night, All the attention on Lindsey Vonn^W and her gold medal at the Olympics, and then this movie making boatloads of money at the box office I would say that this year is looking great for women. I think it would be a great time to raise a little girl, they have so many examples of strong women in many different fields.

The saving grace of this movie it that no matter how weird it got; it was still a great story about a heroine finding the courage to fight her fears and make choices in her life. If I have a daughter she’s definitely seeing this movie! At what age? That is another story.

Schu-Review: 4.5 out of 5 Schus

Slade – Who The Fuck Is Alice

Download audio file (Slade-Who-The-Fuck-Is-Alice.mp3)

Schu-Review : Left Hand – Fade to Black ale

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:29:23 +0000

Fade to Black

Beer Review:

Chocolate coffee sweet molassasy thick feel bite of hops. This is a good black ale. You have to be in a dark beer mood to drink it, but you’ll be rewarded if you do. There’s so much flavor inside this bottle, the smell of dark chocolate, the taste of strong coffee. It has a thick sweet texture with a formidable bite of hops at the end. At 8% ABV it’s pretty strong, so a 6 pack will probably do you in for the night. But the beer is so strong tasting that I’d recommend stopping at 3. Overall it’s just a good beer that I will seek out again.

Bottle Review:

This may be one of the best designed bottles that I’ve seen in a while. I could be that I’m really into this old english ribbon-y font right now, but I think it’s timeless. The cut of the label and how it’s just filled with so many details that it almost becomes texture. You kind of just feel like a badass when you’re drinking it. When a beer is called ‘Fade to Black Ale’ you need an awesome bottle to match it.

Schu-Review : 4 out of 5 Schus

Best documentary of 2009 : ANVIL – The story of Anvil

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:45:46 +0000

I don’t give a shit about 80′s metal and this is still the best documentary I have seen all year. Hell it might be the best movie that I’ve seen all year. I just connected with these guys so much. It’s the reason I love documentaries, these are real people. They aren’t some characters thought up by writers. They have real problems, real emotions, and real heart.

Through the movie you see how much promise and success they had back in the beginning and then they just kind of went nowhere, but they never gave up. Now it’s 30 years later and they’re still trying to make it. The movie focuses on the lead singer and drummer of Anvil. The lead singer ‘Lips’ is the one in the band who won’t let the dream die, he works at a catering company and takes vacation time to play shows. There are people in his life that you can see don’t share his vision and don’t really support him. But his girlfriend and older sister stick with him no matter what. Maybe that’s the part that really resonated personally with me? The other main character is the drummer, Robb Reiner (not the actor/director). He and Lips have this rocky ‘Brothers in Metal’ relationship that creates some intense emotional moments through out the film. When the ending comes you are so emotionally invested in this band that they really feel like family.

I cannot believe that this movie didn’t even get nominated for best documentary in the Academy Awards. The only close competition I would give it was The Cove and that for me is a distant second. Food Inc., the front runner for the award, was NOTHING compared to this movie. ANVIL doesn’t need flashy graphics or voice overs, it thrives on basic human spirit. The story of Anvil provided enough emotion for 10 movies.

If you have a heart and a dream, you will love this movie.

watch the trailer
buy the music

Schu-Review : 5 out of 5 Schus

*UPDATE*
Apparently this movie came out in 2007, but since I just watched it last week. I’m still calling it the best documentary of 2009.

Williamsburg Alewerks Brewmaster’s Reserve Grand Illumination Ale

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:00:31 +0000

Long name, short number.

Beer Review:

This beer has a very long name, I mean seriously… it’s 7 words long and they aren’t short words either. It’s made in Williamsburg, VA which is about 3.5 hours from my house and always makes me think of being in the 4th grade. The first thing I thought of when drinking this beer was how thick it was and how much I liked the smell. It has one of those sugary, molassassy, caramely barley wine tastes. After the first sip you notice the bite of hops. A big bite like a gnarly dog made out of tiny green leaves. the hops sting the nostrils with their pungent aroma. It’s a formidible scent. After you get that kick of hops the alcohol comes at the end and stomps you in the tounge again. The beer leaves your mouth feeling tight like it was once covered in shag carpeting then ripped out. But this is a good thing! This beer reminds you why your drinking American Craft Beer and not some macro-brew swill.

Bottle review:

Unlike the beer inside the bottle and label are pretty plain. Reminds me of visiting Williamsburg, the people get dressed up as colonial folk, but you’re still aware that they are a dentist from Newport News. The only fun element is the spark in the middle and the ridiculously long name.

Conclusion:

I like this beer. You’re not going to win any hipster friends with the bottle. But the beer inside is what counts anyway. Its a strong thick barley wine in a style that I think Patrick Henry would approve of.

4 out of 5 Schus