COLLEGE ROAD TRIP NOW AVAILABLE

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HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THE MOVIE COLLEGE ROAD TRIP FROM IMDB

When an overachieving high school student decides to travel around the country to choose the perfect college, her overprotective cop father also decides to accompany her in order to keep her on the straight and narrow.

HERE IS A REVIEW FOR THE MOVIE COLLEGE ROAD TRIP FROM DVDTALK

Oh, the mugging in this thing. You would not believe how many of the actors spend all their precious screentime contorting their face into extravagant comical positions, making sure every single audience member comprehends "College Road Trip" is supposed to be a silly movie. It's nearly 3-D in execution.

A protective father, James Porter (Martin Lawrence) is reluctant to allow his daughter Melanie (Raven-Symone) a chance to attend college at Georgetown, located over 700 miles from the family home. When Melanie is invited to speak to the admissions council at the last minute, James refuses to let the child travel with friends, taking her, son Trey (Eshaya Draper), and pet pig Albert on a road trip to help restore frayed bonds, but also to keep a close eye on his beloved daughter. It doesn't take long for the vacation to turn into a nightmare, leaving James in a permanent state of panic as he fights to keep Melanie on a leash, deal with fellow strident parents (Donny Osmond), and confront his own growing sense of empty nest syndrome.

Roger Kumble directed "College Road Trip." This is same man who created smut like "Cruel Intentions," "The Sweetest Thing," and "Just Friends," and now he's at the helm of a G-rated Disney family comedy? Perhaps that's why "College" feels so overprocessed and shrill. It's clearly the work of a man attempting to alter the course of his dying career, only to rely on ineffective instincts for a genre he should be kept away from. Kumble is bad with cute and cuddly.

However, blaming the director for the entire cringe factor of "College" is unfair. The screenplay (credited to four writers) is a hodgepodge of slapstick, melodrama, more slapstick, and "one to grow on" sentiment, piled punishingly high and rendered flavorless by the Disneyfication production process.

The cast is just as shameless, with every participant leaping about like their pants have caught fire. While I admit to enjoying Lawrence when busts out his panic button, Raven-Symone pitches her acting to the rafters, taking every horrible habit she's nurtured on the Disney Channel and splashes the big screen with her obnoxious, questionable eye-bulging and 10-chin double-takes. "College" even permits her a musical number just to loathe the performance even more.

The less said about Donny Osmond the better, though I will write that he's astonishingly well-cast as the constant annoyance of the story.

Thematically, "College" wants to discuss the misery of parents forced to let their children become adults. It's a tender topic, yet nothing resembling a human emotion is allowed near the picture. All that's offered are repetitive scoring cues (separated into two categories: "sad" and "fall down and go boom") and saccharine, tear-jerking screenwriting that's far too coldly calculated to penetrate the ill will clotting up the rest of the picture.

While the novelty of seeing Martin Lawrence trying to neuter himself to meet G-rating expectations is an undeniable curiosity, "College Road Trip" pushes too hard on the wacky button, to a point of full sensorial meltdown. There are only so many food fights, pig-hopped-up-on-caffeine gags, and brutal Raven-Symone improv that one person can take before madness sets in.

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FUN WITH DICK AND JANE NOW AVAILABLE

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HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THE MOVIE FUN WITH DICK AND JANE FROM IMDB

The day before Globodyne's stock tanks, a la Enron, and its pension fund evaporates, the corporation's CEO and CFO set up middle manager Dick Harper to be the public face of the disaster. Jobless, and with no savings, pension, or home equity, Dick and his wife Jane sink slowly into poverty. He looks for work (as do all former Globodyne executives); he even tries day labor with the relatives of their Mexican nanny. A foreclosure notice sends Dick and Jane over the edge into a life of blue-collar crime. Then, as things finally look up, the report of an looming indictment pushes Dick and Jane toward a denouement with the real criminals, the white-collar guys. Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}

HERE IS A REVIEW FOR THE MOVIE FUN WITH DICK AND JANE FROM DVDTALK

The movie

Somebody ought to go yell at the art director for the DVD edition of Fun with Dick and Jane. It's a funny, sharp, highly entertaining movie, saddled with utterly generic cover art that looks like it was slapped together by a summer intern... cover art that says "eh, just keep walking" rather than "hey, look at me, I'm a really clever movie!" the way it ought to.

Honestly I wouldn't have pegged Fun with Dick and Jane as a movie I'd particularly like. It stars Jim Carrey, and while that's a selling point for many viewers, for me it was the opposite; I've never been a big Carrey fan, and some of his work has been positively grating. I have to admit, though, that Fun with Dick and Jane showcases all of Carrey's considerable comic talents, and serves as a convincing argument that 1. he's a better actor now than a few years ago, when he was more brash, and 2. a good-quality script is what he needs to shine.

The trailer for Fun with Dick and Jane touches on one aspect of the story: a suburban couple turns to robbery to sustain their affluent lifestyle. It's a funny section, to be sure, but what actually makes the film work so well is that this is just one segment of the whole story. Along the way, the film casts its humorous and often sharply satiric net over a number of topics: corporate culture and its yes-men; the middle-class nanny culture; job searching and the interview process; illegal workers; consumerism and the obsession with appearances; keeping up with the Joneses; and corporate greed. Along the way, Fun with Dick and Jane also manages to be a heist film. Sort of.

Fun with Dick and Jane has a kind of manic energy that is expressed quite delightfully in a number of over-the-top scenes, which I can't describe without spoiling for you. It's here - and in any number of smaller scenes - that Jim Carrey's mix of verbal and physical comedy comes off so well, with his madcap glee fitting in perfectly with the slightly surreal script. The key here, though, is that the filmmakers have kept the film balanced, wisely not trying to make it a "laugh a minute" from start to finish. The comic tension rises and falls, so that the humor ends up being effective all the way through the film.

The film is also a testament to the importance of pacing. I'd say that while tight pacing helps any film, it's even more important for a comedy than for a drama. Dragging out a scene in a comedy is usually the kiss of death for laughs, while a zippy pace keeps the audience smiling and wanting more. In the case of Fun with Dick and Jane, the pacing is handled extremely well. The film starts on an excellent note, with the characters introduced on-screen with labels along the lines of "See Dick... See Jane... See Spot..."; it's very funny and serves as a great hook for the viewer. My big question was whether the energy displayed in the credits sequence could possibly keep going over the course of the film, and to my pleasant surprise, the answer was "yes." The film doesn't manage to stay at that peak of energy absolutely consistently, but it's so briskly paced (without being rushed) that the whole film feels lively and energetic. And funny.

Last but not least, one of the things that works so well about Fun with Dick and Jane is the fact that its absurdities are in fact poking fun at the absurdities of U.S. culture. The film draws its humor from exaggerating reality; while a real interview is unlikely to degenerate into quite the knock-down, drag-out scene that we see here, for instance, in emotional terms it often feels like that. And part of the reason the humor has bite is that the scenario is closer to home than many people would like to admit; how many suburban homeowners are genuinely one corporate meltdown away from bankruptcy? Your real neighbors might not turn to crime after a layoff, but they might wish they could...

The DVD

Video

Fun with Dick and Jane is presented here in a clean, attractive transfer, at the film's original widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1. (A pan-and-scan version is also included, but at least the menu screen makes it visually very clear that this option chops off part of the image.) The transfer is anamorphically enhanced, and looks very pleasing to the eye. Colors are bright and crisp, and contrast is handled well.

Audio

The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is very good, with the dialogue and the music portions of the track nicely balanced. The music is a substantial element of some scenes, and always sounds clean and natural. A French Dolby 5.1 track is also included.

Extras

The special features for this DVD are reasonably solid. There's an audio commentary track with director Dean Parisot and scriptwriters Judd Apatow and Nicholas Stoller, to start with, along with a set of outtakes for publicity interviews for the film. The short gag reel is quite funny, as are the deleted scenes, which are well worth watching.

Final thoughts

Fun with Dick and Jane is a pleasant surprise, a fresh and lively comedy that packs in a lot of sharp, clever humor into a well-paced 90-minute running time. Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni both deliver solid performances here, with several other well-known actors providing nice secondary roles. Despite the decidedly bland cover art, Fun with Dick and Jane is a DVD that's worth a look. In fact, I'll say that this is "highly recommended."

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FOOL'S GOLD NOW AVAILABLE

FOOL'S GOLD NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THE MOVIE FOOL'S GOLD FROM IMDB

A new clue to the whereabouts of a lost treasure rekindles a married couple's sense of adventure -- and their estranged romance.

HERE IS A REVIEW FOR THE MOVIE FOOL'S GOLD FROM DVDTALK

The Movie
In a recent episode of Family Guy, little Stewie Griffin has a chat with Matthew McConaughey: "You know Matthew, I may not ever get another chance to say this, so I just want to get it off my chest: You are just awful. You're one of the worst actors in the history of film, and I think that you need to go away."

"Oh thanks man! The truth is I spend at least 90 percent of my year going away, visiting exotic places, having sex with my beautiful girlfriend, just doing sit-ups. And then counting money...money that I've made on terrible films that I've put out into the American populace because they just love to see me, doing what it is that I do."

I couldn't stop thinking about that as I sat through Fool's Gold, the latest from director Andy Tennant--the man who has given us a number of moderate non-failures like Hitch, Sweet Home Alabama and Ever After. It also marks the second pairing of McConaughey with Kate Hudson, following the painfully predictable How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days in 2003.

I imagine that when people send McConaughey scripts, they include notes for his muscles: If you make him run a lot and keep him short of breath, his abs will clench. If you make him cling for life to the outside of a plane, his biceps look quite striking. And if you put him in a fight, there's amble opportunity for displays of defined triceps. Hey...I love beefcake just like the rest of you, but it only goes so far.

Ab-solute situation

Welcome to Fool's Gold, a beautifully empty film. There's a lot of attention given to the meaningless lost treasure history (including a yawn-inducing scene that describes the excruciatingly boring back story), but all you really need to know is that there's booty at the bottom of the ocean near Key West (which looks an awful lot like Australia), and lots of people want to find it. For Benjamin Finnegan (McConaughey), it may be the only way to help save his crumbling marriage to Tess (Hudson), who is ready to sign divorce papers after years of dealing with his irresponsibility. She now works as a steward for billionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland), who soon gets a visit from his starlet daughter Gemma (Alexis Dziena). They have a distant relationship that becomes one of the film's silly subplots.

Meanwhile, Ben is in big trouble with Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart, stroking a rabbit in his first scene), a rapper/businessman who sang the hit "Call Me Thumper" and apparently killed someone called Fuzzy Dice (or was it Pogo Stick?). He has financed Ben's escapades--but now wants his money back. Bunny hires some cronies to help him, including Ben's former mentor Moe Fitch (Ray Winstone). Soon, everyone is trying to find the Queen's Dowry as the film becomes a mild mash-up of Pirates of the Caribbean and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

It's remarkable that three writers worked on this script, because there's a stunningly small amount of story in the over-long 108 minutes. Nearly 20 minutes into the film, I was amazed at how little had actually happened, and it doesn't get any deeper. But it becomes obvious that the movie doesn't aspire to be anything more than a colorful caper with Bob Marley tunes, and it has more in common with a Bugs Bunny cartoon than anything else (no offense to that wascally wabbit, who wouldn't be caught dead in this...and there's actually a reference to him in the film!).

The Bunny Hop

Ben is frequently put into situations that blend extreme violence with impossible escapes or acts of heroism. Whether he's trying to save his life by moving an anchor at the bottom of the ocean or being blasted out of the water by an explosion, the film is all about exaggerated situations and eye-popping visuals. Hudson gets in on the action, too, knocking Ben to the ground with a blow to the head (she so cra-zay!)--and later slamming a shovel between Bigg Bunny's legs. The film is an emotionally empty feast for the eyes, with beautiful locations, beautiful bodies and beautiful colors lighting up the screen. Who needs story, right?

Shovel in groin? Priceless.

Hudson does her Hudson thing--looking absolutely gorgeous as she charms her way through silly material, playfully stumbling over thoughts and words ("Stewing? Stewarding?" Aww, how cute!) while trying to align her head with her heart. She is one of the few actresses that can get away with it, but I hope she gets stronger material, because I think she can handle it. And despite McConaughey not offering anything we haven't seen before, the two do play well together...although the driver of their relationship seems to be sex and money, not actual love and affection. The film has a running joke with Tess alluding to one of the few reasons she actually likes Ben (I don't want to be vulgar, but I'm it rhymes with "Coral Hex"), and the only time the two are aligned is when they get excited over the treasure.

Sutherland seems to be living his droll emotions, looking very unhappy to be in every scene, while Dziena plays the airhead just like anyone else would (she answers to the name "stupid" and asks questions like "The sea's all attached, right?"). You also get a pair of gay chefs who fawn over Ben ("It's more than just the sheer power of his raw sexuality, it's the totality of his emotional commitment to the task at hand!") and are later involved in one of the film's many cheap jokes--this one involving a shotgun and the phrase "Cock it" (clever!). Bunny and his henchmen all have thankless roles, a greedy group more concerned with money than human lives (would it have killed the writers to create one positive African-American character?).

Gemma loves suggestive swordplay.

The film can't quite pull off its balancing act of delight and danger. Tess and Ben are frequently put into frightening situations with life-threatening consequences, yet when push comes to shove the movie chickens out with comedic solutions that feel fake and forced (if someone is trying to kill you, are you really going to settle for a sucker punch?). Fool's Gold tempts you with intrigue, but it's too scared to pull the trigger. It's an odd combination that doesn't gel...but with Matthew McConaughey's 18-pack on display, I was sometimes too distracted to care.

Ummm....triceps!

But then there's the voice of Stewie, screaming into my head: "You're not hearing me. Dazed and Confused was the one thing that was passable...after that, everything else was awful. Contact? They didn't even need you in that. They could have done the while movie without you."

"I know, I said the same thing, but they were like, 'Oh we need a good looking guy with a great ass and some tight abs, who just provides some down-home enthusiasm in this picture...something to counter-balance Jodie Foster. They took her to be slightly cold, unapproachable, you know? So they put me in there. I said it didn't make any sense...said the same thing about that Bill Murray elephant movie. But it was just like, 'Aw, audiences need you! Hee hee!"

"You make me physically sick to my stomach and I wish that you would get a heart attack."

"I totally feel you, man. Truth of the matter is, I don't like my movies either, but they just keep offering me movies and I make money and I do it, and I get to go around the world. I mean, did you see Sahara? Ha ha! But I tell you, what that movie gave me was an opportunity to take an Airstream all across the country and sell that picture one person at a time."

"You suck donkey ass."

"Now you can't prove that..."

Oh, Matthew! I don't want to! You and Kate are too darn cute to dislike!

The DVD

Video:
Presented in an anamorphic 2.35:1 presentation, Fool's Gold looks a lot better than it feels. It shines in the outdoor scenes that capitalize on its beautiful backgrounds, with rich, deep blues striking a memorable pose, and the lead actors bathed in shades of gold. Some scenes are a little soft, and I noticed some minor edge issues on body silhouettes, but overall this is a very pretty film to look at.

Audio:
Equally effective is the 5.1 track, which does its best to surround you in subtle sounds: the ocean waves, the purr of a helicopter, crickets...its not overpowering (maybe slightly on the weak side), but still enhances the experience. You can choose an English, French and Spanish track (as well as subtitles).

Extras:
Surprisingly weak on supplements, all you get here are two short segments: a gag reel (2:44) is a brief look at behind-the-scenes shenanigans, not really bloopers; while "Flirting with Adventure" (4:30) is a short collection of interviews with Hudson and some of the crew giving tongue baths to each other (of McConaughey, she says "We fight well, and we flirt really well"). It could have been a much better feature, only glossing the surface of the pair's chemistry--an odd brother/sister connection behind the camera that comes across intimate on screen.

Final Thoughts:
Is Fool's Gold a good movie? No. It's surprisingly short on actual story, instead relying on pretty pictures--from stunning locations to Kate Hudson's smile to Matthew McConaughey's pecs--to get by. It's a cartoon come to life, blending colorful, eye-catching visuals with a playfully violent streak--a combination that doesn't quite work. But as bad movies go, I can think of much worse things to watch--it's dumb, but it's pretty. Rent It.

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FRACTURE NOW AVAILABLE

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HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THE MOVIE FRACTURE FROM IMDB

Wealthy, brilliant, and meticulous Ted Crawford, a structural engineer in Los Angeles, shoots his wife and entraps her lover. He signs a confession; at the arraignment, he asserts his rights to represent himself and asks the court to move immediately to trial. The prosecutor is Willy Beachum, a hotshot who's soon to join a fancy civil-law firm, told by everyone it's an open and shut case. Crawford sees Beachum's weakness, the hairline fracture of his character: Willy's a winner. The engineer sets in motion a clockwork crime with all the objects moving in ways he predicts. Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}

Ted Crawford shoots his unfaithful wife, confesses to the police - orally and in writing - but then pleads not guilty and opts to defend himself in court. The young DA assigned to the case, Willy Beachum, has had a successful career with a 97% conviction rate. Beachum however is actually on his way to a lucrative position in a big private law firm, but his desire to win keeps him on the case. What ensues is a battle of wits between the two as Crawford systematically destroys his opponents case. Written by garykmcd

HERE IS A REVIEW FOR THE MOVIE FRACTURE FROM DVDTALK

It's hard to watch Gregory Hoblit's Fracture (2007) and not be reminded of The Silence of the Lambs---at least on the surface, that is. Both could be considered psychological thrillers, though Silence is much closer to a horror film. Both feature Anthony Hopkins as an intelligent, provocative criminal who commands attention with his words and actions. Both feature protagonists seeking justice while attempting to dissect Hopkins' mind---but instead of a young, upstart FBI student, here we get a young, upstart lawyer. The main difference, of course, is this: Silence takes its time as the horrific events unfold, always ready with another trick up its sleeve. Fracture, on the other hand, plays all of its cards too early and lumbers along to an unsatisfying conclusion.

Our story revolves around Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson), a successful young prosecutor with only two weeks left at his current job. He's just been offered a high-profile position at a corporate law firm, so it's no surprise that his focus is starting to drift. Luckily, his most recent case appears to be a no-brainer: wealthy engineer Ted Crawford (Hopkins) has just been convicted of shooting his wife, who lays comatose in a hospital while the legal proceedings unfold. The film's earliest sequences hint at what drove Crawford to commit the crime, but one thing's for sure: we saw him do it. Unfortunately, the evidence against him doesn't quite add up, turning this seemingly open-and-shut case into a movement for acquittal.

First, the good news: Hopkins and Gosling turn in strong performances here, carrying most of the film's weight as the story unfolds. Their interactions are often stirring, even when Hopkins veers into familiar territory. Unfortunately, a number of supporting characters only exist to slow down the proceedings, from Willy's new boss and quasi-love interest (Rosamund Pike) to the heavy-handed treatment of Crawford's comatose wife. Both offer rather short-sighted glimpses of character development for the young prosecutor, even though they're rarely needed in what should've been a more streamlined thriller. Additionally, the plot ends up being painfully linear: all the pieces seem to literally fall into place, leaving little room for suspense or even dramatic tension.

Most viewers will find Fracture harmless enough upon its first viewing. The legal proceedings are certainly far-fetched but occasionally gripping, as Crawford's profession of innocence actually makes us question the film's opening moments. Fortunately (and in a sense, unfortunately), there are few twists and turns along the way. Audiences have become so accustomed to being tricked during a thriller's final moments, the thought of a relatively neat ending almost seems like a cheat in itself. This certainly doesn't mean that Fracture can't pull the wool over our eyes during a few key sequences, but the film's third act often seems painfully forced in its simplicity. Combined with the superfluous side-stories mentioned earlier, there's more crammed in here than there really ought to be. It can be enjoyed on a basic level for the solid lead performances, but there's surprisingly little about Fracture that leaves a lasting impression.

Presented on DVD by New Line, Fracture arrives in a relatively slim package that reflects its underwhelming performance at the box office. To be fair, what's on board here has at least been presented with care: the technical presentation is strong, while the limited bonus features look and sound equally good. Though die-hard fans of the film may want to pick this up on release day, new viewers should certainly proceed with caution. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Quality Control Department

Technical Presentation & Subtitles

Presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and enhanced for widescreen displays, it's no surprise that Fracture looks excellent on DVD. The slightly stylized color palette appears cool and natural, boasting strong black levels and no apparent digital defects. Fracture may not be a perfect film, but you'll have a tough time complaining about the visual treatment.

Audio is presented in your choice of Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0 Surround formats; dialogue sounds clean and clear throughout, while music and sound effects rarely fight for attention. You shouldn't expect much from the rear channels, but what's here should satisfy fans of the film. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are included during the main feature and most of the bonus material.

Menu Design, Chapters & Packaging Seen above, the animated menu designs are relatively simply and easy to navigate. The 113-minute main feature has been divided into 16 chapters, while no obvious layer change was detected during playback. This one-disc release is housed in a standard black keepcase; a handsome metallic slipcover and a promotional insert are also included.

Bonus Features There isn't much to pick and choose from here, but at least we get a few scraps. The main attraction is a collection of Deleted & Alternate Scenes (7 clips, 33:57 total), including two alternate endings. What's here is only mildly interesting---and even though we only get a few minor character moments and a quick love scene, it's easy to see that their exclusion made the final cut a bit tighter. As for the alternate endings, they do little more than add a few brief, unnecessary moments to the final 11 minutes of the film. In short, those looking for drastically different conclusions will walk away disappointed.

Closing things out is the original Theatrical Trailer (2:21) and a few Sneak Peeks for upcoming New Line projects. All bonus features have been presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen (yes, even the deleted scenes!) and only the trailer doesn't include optional English and Spanish subtitles. Here's hoping more studios treat the bonus features with such care.

Final Thoughts

It may dress itself up as a tightly-wound psychological thriller, but Fracture barely manages to keep up with the strong performances of Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. The slow-burning story is weighed down by a few unnecessary plot elements and supporting characters; this proves to be especially frustrating, since the film starts out quite strongly. Overall, Fracture is a harmless enough diversion but probably won't hold up to many repeat viewings. New Line's DVD package is slim but serviceable, offering a strong technical presentation and a few bonus features. While there's certainly not enough here to recommend this as a solid blind buy, fans of Hopkins and Gosling shouldn't object to giving Fracture a spin over the weekend. Rent It.

HERE IS THE DIRECT DOWNLOAD FOR THE MOVIE FRACTURE

ONE FINE DAY NOW AVAILABLE

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HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THE MOVIE ONE FINE DAY FROM IMDB

Melanie Parker, an architect and mother of Sammy, and Jack Taylor, a newspaper columnist and father of Maggie, are both divorced. They meet one morning when overwhelmed Jack is left unexpectedly with Maggie and forgets that Melanie was to take her to school. As a result, both children miss their school field trip and are stuck with the parents. The two adults project their negative stereotypes of ex-spouses on each other, but end up needing to rely on each other to watch the children as each must save his job. Humor is added by Sammy's propensity for lodging objects in his nose and Maggie's tendency to wander. Written by John H. Henderson {johnh@eng.auburn.edu}

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DOOMSDAY NOW AVAILABLE

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HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THE MOVIE DOOMSDAY FROM IMDB

A lethal virus spreads throughout the British isles,infection millions and kills hundreds of thousands. To contain the threat, acting authorities brutally quarantine the country as it succumbs to fear and chaos. The quarantine is successful. Three decades later, the Reaper virus violently resurfaces in a major city. An elite group of specialists, including Eden Sinclair, is urgently dispatched into the still-quarantined country to retrieve a cure by any means necessary. Shut off from the rest of the world, the unit must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare. Written by Nicolettea

Great Britain, 2007. A deadly plague, known as the "Reaper Virus," has broken out, killing hundreds of thousands in its wake. In desperation, the British Government evacuates as many survivors as it can out of the infected area, and then builds a wall, preventing the remainder from escaping. Thirty years later, with the wall still up and the victims all but forgotten, the virus breaks out again. The Government decides to send a crack team of operatives, led by Major Eden Sinclair, into the hot zone to investigate the possibility of a cure. Written by manikman

HERE IS A REVIEW FOR THE MOVIE DOOMSDAY FROM DVDTALK


After creating "Dog Soldiers" and the mesmerizing horror bonanza "The Descent," writer/director Neil Marshall has built up quite an impressive reservoir of good faith with both fans and critics. He's a smart filmmaker; a fresh talent working the levers on genres that need every ounce of intelligence they can possibly vacuum up. However, "Doomsday" is a misfire for Marshall; a vivid production giving him a plump budget to pursue his deepest widescreen dreams, yet he loses control of this violent free-for-all immediately after takeoff.

When the Reaper virus rears its ugly head in 2008, it threatens to wipe out Scotland, forcing government officials to do the unthinkable: wall off the country to isolate the infected. 25 years later, the virus has returned, and the secret of a potential cure is locked away in the quarantined country now populated with the tattooed and cannibalistic dregs of humanity. Wasting no time, the cops (led by Bob Hoskins) look to Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) and her band of specialists to penetrate a makeshift city and recover a cure from gang leader Kane (Malcolm McDowell) before the Reaper has a second chance to wipe the population off the planet.

If the plot sounds like a job for Snake Plissken, you're not far off. Apparently Marshall was munching on a serious dosage of "Escape of New York" pills when manufacturing "Doomsday," resulting in not only a comatose actioner, but a derivative one as well.

Frankly, the entire first act is devoted to the sights and sounds of John Carpenter; Marshall unapologetically steals every cue he can to make the picture resemble a creation from 1981, even employing composer Tyler Bates to replicate legendary synth beats and electro-stings. It's not passive idolatry as much as it's exasperating thievery. Robert Rodriguez had far more interesting fun with Carpenter-love in last year's "Planet Terror," but Marshall simply replicates his favorite scenes from "Escape," only now the action is blurred by trendy edit-happy action formations and the gore is unrelentingly hostile instead of amusing.

Cracks in the foundation show up immediately in "Doomsday," particularly in the casting of Mitra as the resident badass, Eden Sinclair. Mitra is impossibly beautiful, but she's also impossibly bland: a personality-free anti-hero who's left hanging by Marshall's remote screenplay, which doesn't have time or patience to develop any character. It leaves the picture a goulash of caloric emptiness, with Marshall preferring a sensorial assault over any form of dramatic interaction. He's making a dumb 80's action sideshow, yet in his quest for excess, he's lost any potential, and quite critical, focal points along the way.

Let's face it: Eden Sinclair is no Snake Plissken, even when Marshall bestows his heroine with an eye-patch in early scenes, along with a constant influx of one-liners, albeit withered retorts. Marshall pushes hard, but it just doesn't feel as natural as he's hoping.

Because "Doomsday" appears to come from the place in Marshall's brain that encourages mediocrity, the picture somehow moves from "Escape from New York" to "Lord of the Rings" in the second half, where Sinclair tracks Kane to a touristy Scottish medieval castle, where he lords over his horsemen and gladiators with an iron fist. The tonal change isn't out of the blue since, by this point, Marshall's exhausting ADD has been firmly established. However, that doesn't excuse how goofy the movie becomes in this knights-and-arrows section of the film, amplifying the disconnect between what Marshall thinks is a bloody good show and what nonsense is actually happening onscreen.

For the last two reels of "Doomsday," the mood switches yet again, and the finale is a straight-up "Mad Max" pinch, only here the action is scored to a Frankie Goes to Hollywood tune (no, I'm not kidding) and the car gymnastics feel more like a cruddy theme park stunt show than an exhilarating, gleefully ludicrous pyrotechnic orchestration. Here, "Doomsday" falls completely apart, lost in a poisonous cloud of indulgence and bewilderment.

"Doomsday" is a mess of lousy filmmaking and unrelenting artistic bankruptcy, smashed together to form an ear-splitting, overcooked, awfully irritating shell of an experience. Whatever bloody-knuckle merriment Marshall was intending with this tribute to the cinema speeds of the 80s has been lost in the headache-inducing translation.

HERE IS THE DIRECT DOWNLOAD FOR THE MOVIE DOOMSDAY.

FINDING AMANDA NOW AVAILABLE

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HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THE MOVIE FINDING AMANDA FROM IMDB

A television producer with a penchant for drinking and gambling is sent to Las Vegas to convince his troubled niece to enter rehab.

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DVD VERSION OF 21 NOW AVAILABLE

21 DVD VERSION NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THE MOVIE 21 FROM IMDB

Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent, student at M.I.T. in Boston who strives to succeed. Wanting a scholarship to transfer to Harvard School of Medicine with the desire to become a doctor, Ben learns that he cannot afford the $300,000 for the four to five years of school since he comes from a poor, working-class background. But one evening, Ben is introduced by his unorthodox math professor Micky Rosa into a small but secretive club of five students, Jill, Choi, Kianna, and Jimmy whom are being trained by Professor Rosa of the skill of card counting at blackjack. Intriged by the desire to make money, Ben joins his new friends on secret weekend trips to Las Vegas where, using their skills of code talk and hand signals, they have Ben make hundreds of thousands of dollars in winning blackjack at casino after casino. Ben only wants to make enough money for the tuition to Harvard and then back out. But as fellow card counter, Jill Taylor, predicts, Ben becomes corrupted by greed and his arrogance at winning which lets his feelings get in the way, and it also puts Professor Rosa, as well as the group, on the radar of a brutal casino security enforcer, named Cole Williams, who holds a personal grudge of some kind against Rosa which threatens to undo everything the students have learned and earned. Written by matt-282

HERE IS A REVIEW FOR THE MOVIE 21 FROM DVDTALK

Adapted from the best-selling novel "Bringing Down the House," "21" is a slick piece of amusement, cashing in on common fantasies of beating the odds, bedding the blonde, and dodging certain doom with only a few inches to spare. It's a lively gambling drama that's far better than it had any right to be, but is kept from greatness by some rotten dramatic choices.

Ben (Jim Sturgess, "Across the Universe") is an MIT student struggling to find the money for Harvard Medical School. An opportunity is placed in his hands by Micky (Kevin Spacey), a professor who runs a card-counting Blackjack scheme during the weekends. Reluctantly, Ben joins this small group of students (including Kate Bosworth, Jacob Pitts, Liza Lapira, and Aaron Yoo), and together they fly to Las Vegas to clean out the casinos. Thrilled at first with the money raked in, Ben quickly learns there's a price to pay for his greed, leaving him caught between Micky's growing threats and the financial demands of his once-promising future.

Directed by Robert Luketic ("Legally Blonde"), "21" is incredibly glossy, hip filmmaking calculated to capture the butterflies of boisterous casino-floor victory and the slow, liquid release of personal problems when cash starts to flow. To that end, the picture is extraordinarily vivid; the director blasts blazing colors, the amps soundtrack selections, and stages rollicking Vegas nightlife, spraying big-screen candy everywhere. Luketic aims to put the viewer in the passenger seat of Ben's odyssey into unremitting greed and moral confusion, and the film locates tremendous success in these areas of the screenplay. "21" can be an overwhelming sensory experience, but the point of this is to feel the pull of Ben's temptations, to better appreciate his mistakes.

Played well by Sturgess, Ben is not a likable character; in fact, nobody in the picture has any perceivable sympathy, especially Ben's spurned nerd best friend, played with greased-maw obnoxiousness by Josh Gad, who can stop acting right now if he's elected to travel down the Dan Fogler route of loathsome fat-guy/quip-guy performances. To find an edgy rhythm to "21," Luketic sacrifices the human element of the story. This creates problems throughout the picture, especially once the film asks the audience to root for the MIT students when, in fact, they come off just as underhanded and insatiable as Micky or the fatigued, obsolete Vegas video surveillance security forces (led by Laurence Fishburne) out to nail the counters.

Ben and his students aren't Robin Hoods, and the screenplay clears room to address their downfall. However, there just isn't enough substance to this ethics subplot to make it feel like "21" is really trying to understand these characters and their monetary paranoia. The film barely pays attention to the consequences of Vegas manipulation outside of hokey back alley beat-downs, and it's not long before the film looks to pay itself off with a chase finale, resembling something out of 1970's cop show. Luketic appears fearful of letting the audience leave the theater with any sort of realistic interpretation of right and wrong, so he slathers on the questionable heroics, effectively turning Ben into a saint.

The fun of "21" is getting lost in the details of the counting along with the characters. The picture does make the strategy architecture thrilling through use of detail-oriented photography and special effects, and the pizzazz of beating the casino at its own game is rendered triumphantly. It's easy to get caught up in the hunt for Blackjack angles that "21" presents with significant charm. However, much like Las Vegas itself, it's only fun in fits, and the next morning you might find yourself regretting spending time with something comprised entirely of surface delights.

HERE IS THE DIRECT DOWNLOAD FOR THE MOVIE 21.

METAL GEAR SOLID 4 REVIEW FOR THE PS3

METAL GEAR SOLID 4 REVIEW FROM IGN

HERE IS THE REVIEW OF THE GAME METAL GEAR SOLID 4 FROM IGN.


Twenty-one years ago, the gaming world was introduced to a hero: a soldier that fought alone against impossible odds to save the world. Over time, the hero grew into a legend that changed the gaming landscape and redefined stealth action games with his epic battles. After more than two decades of service, Solid Snake is finally receiving an honorable discharge in the latest chapter in the Metal Gear Solid franchise. While this is Snake's final mission, he isn't going quietly into that good night, nor is he being constrained by previous titles. Indeed, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots shatters the proverbial bar, becoming a technical, cinematic and gaming standard that future action and stealth titles will be judged by. It's been a long time coming, but this game is a true classic and a masterpiece from Hideo Kojima, Kojima Productions and Konami. The world of Metal Gear Solid 4 is quite a bleak one. In fact, in many ways, it's precisely the one that Solid Snake and Otacon have been hoping to avoid. Set six years in the future, war and conflict are no longer a sporadic occurrence with hot spots around the globe; instead, the entire planet is engulfed in constant battle. War has become its own self-sustaining industry, replacing the overall global economy with the contracts of private military corporations, or PMCs, that sell their services to the highest bidder. These mercenaries constantly try to prove their effectiveness on the battlefield to gain even more contracts, which causes more and more destruction as nanomachine-enhanced soldiers clash in cities, in buildings and on the streets. With such a chaotic environment, not even civilians are safe from the constant fighting, as skirmishes can break out at any point.
Be sure to watch or download the video review here (HD available). This is the setting that Solid Snake has been called out of retirement for: one final mission issued by Col. Campbell to save the world from one last threat. Snake is initially inserted into the war zone of the Middle East undercover as a UN PMC inspector to gauge how the situation on the ground is being handled by troops there. Of course, he has a more direct task that takes advantage of his specialized skills: he must find and assassinate Liquid Ocelot, who has become the head of five of the largest PMCs in the world. That's definitely easier said than done, as Ocelot has surrounded himself with a group of deadly comrades -- including a quartet of deadly females known as the Beauty and the Beast Corps who appear to be half woman, half machine -- to eliminate Solid Snake. Or perhaps we should say Old Snake? You see, the legendary soldier is suffering from accelerated aging due to cellular degeneration. This is much more harmful than his multiple pack-a-day smoking addiction, making him physically older than his years and hampering his movements every so often. To accomplish his toughest mission yet, Solid Snake will need to pull a couple of new tricks from his camouflaged sleeves. Fortunately, there are plenty of them to go around in Metal Gear Solid 4, which is easily the deepest and most expansive title in the series.

Welcome to the war zone.

Fans familiar with previous Metal Gear Solid games are aware that each title has introduced new gameplay mechanics for Snake to take advantage of. The incredible part about Metal Gear Solid 4 is there are tons of additional features added to this title, and even when you run into a system or mechanic that you wouldn't think would fit in the Metal Gear Universe, Kojima and his team have figured out a way to make it blend seamlessly with the gameplay, which easily allays any fears or concerns you have. Not only are they well balanced and quite layered, each one adds to the scope of MGS4, which can be considered epic. From the first action sequence in the Middle East where you and a squad of militiamen fight against PMCs, to escorting Meryl and her Rat Patrol squad through a fierce gunfight with The Frogs (Liquid's private army), to the climactic battle at the end of the title, you'll be amazed at the sheer depth included within the game. Take for example the new twist to Snake's classic on-site procurement orders, which plays a major role within the title. In previous games, Snake would be deployed with a minimal amount of equipment, and would have to find his weapons scattered around installations he was infiltrating. This would allow him to stealthily enter and exit a location, using the enemy's weapons against them without leaving a trace. That concept doesn't apply in this new world, as each soldier's nanomachines restrict weapons to their ID-coded owners, preventing anyone else from using them against their owner. Thanks to these new technological restrictions, Snake will have to rely on the services of a gun launderer named Drebin. A mysterious character that seems to be everywhere at all times, Drebin (and his comical hairless monkey known as Little Gray) will remove all firearm safeguards as well as sell new weapons, accessories and ammunition. While the price of his services will vary based on the demand of specific weapons as well as the day of the week (even offering 20 percent off sales), Drebin will always be available to supply Snake with what he needs. This expands Snake's arsenal and his methods significantly. Not only can he instantly purchase new arms or unlock collected weapons that can be immediately used in battle, he can also customize some of his firearms, adding everything from laser scopes and fore grips to noise suppressors and grenade launchers, which will affect the statistics and tactics used for the weapons. For example, if you add a fore grip to an assault rifle, you increase its stability and improve your chances for accurate shots. Adding a flashlight, by contrast, allows you to blind soldiers, giving you a chance to perform CQC moves or hold them up for items. What's more, if Snake runs out of ammunition for a particular weapon in the middle of battle, he can immediately purchase additional rounds that can sustain a fight.

It's coming right for us! Run!

All of these purchases, of course, are based on whether Snake has enough Drebin Points to purchase the item or weapon that he wants. Snake acquires these points in a variety of ways. First of all, he can provide the gun dealer with any extra weapons he doesn't need so that Drebin can maintain his business around the world. This means that any dropped weapons from incapacitated or killed enemies are fair game to loot for points. You'll also receive different Drebin Point bonuses for flashbacks that will pop up here and there during cutscenes, certain story moments, and for eliminating specific enemies. Players can even receive certain bonuses based on how they play through the title. The system is incredibly expansive, and players will be surprised at how it affects their experience. Granted, some critics will say that such widespread influence of the Drebin system and its points makes the game too easy and eschews the traditional stealth roots of the title in favor of an action focus. This is an extremely shallow way to view what this new mechanic provides, which allows players to pick and choose exactly how they would like to play the title. Purists to the covert aspects of the franchise can sneak and crawl through the game with a focus on stealth, restricting their purchases of ammunition or completely avoiding the Drebin system entirely. These players will find plenty of new features to support them in their clandestine moves.

Snake's got an itchy trigger finger. Don't move.

For one thing, the Octocamo system and threat ring gives players a new way to infiltrate areas because of the ease with which Snake can blend into the environment and detect enemies. An obvious evolution of the camouflage system from MGS3, Snake's body suit instantly takes on the appearance of whatever surface he's up against or lying on, helping him blend into his surroundings. Any pattern can instantly be saved and recalled at any point, effectively turning Snake into the ultimate chameleon. This is coupled with the threat ring, which alerts players to the directional position that opponents happen to be in. The more alert the soldier, the higher (and redder) the spike gets on the threat ring. Using these two effectively is extremely important because Snake will go up against the most intelligent grunts that he's ever encountered. The enemy AI is extremely smart and won't follow set patterns of patrolling or searching. In fact, during non-alert phases, they'll interact with fellow soldiers, talking and passing whatever time they can while they wait for action. However, when the caution or alert phase has been raised, they actively search for trouble, which will include taking out any possible hiding places, such as cardboard boxes or drum cans. They'll also immediately call for back up and perform intelligent flanking maneuvers to take out their targets. As a result, you may need to use everything from playing dead to rolling on the ground to evade visual contact to new CQC attacks, such as lying atop an enemy and choking them silently to incapacitate opponents. However, even the most covert players will need to unleash some bullets here and there, relying on firepower to make it through specific fights. Now, players that lean more towards action can go full out with their firepower and blast their way through enemy soldiers much easier than before. Obviously, the ability to acquire and customize new weapons from Drebin helps with this. However, depending on the location that you happen to be in, you can also take advantage of mortars or fixed machine guns. This allows you to shell positions or spray an enemy location with a large number of rounds, eliminating anyone within the weapon's killzone. Players also have new tactical ways of eliminating soldiers, such as performing rolls to avoid incoming fire and even shooting from your back if you're knocked off your feet. However, even rampant run-and-gun tactics has been balanced thanks to the inclusion of the Psyche and Stress meters that govern and influence Snake's mental state in the middle of battle. The Psyche meter is directly below Snake's health gauge and affects his physical abilities and his accuracy with weapons. The lower the Psyche meter, the harder it is for Snake to remain effective in combat. In fact, he'll start to feel the effects of his age, grasping for his back or having other pains hamper him for a few seconds. While this will slowly replenish over time, the meter can be further impacted by his Stress meter, which gauges the tension that Snake is feeling at any point in time. Snake doesn't like certain conditions because they are less conducive to his mission, such as being out in the open instead of the shadows, being in areas that are too hot or too cold, or being spotted by enemies. The higher his stress, the sharper the decline will be in Snake's Psyche.

Two against one? Not a problem.

The only twist is that every now and then, particularly when you are in the midst of battle during an alert phase and your levels have spiked, you can enter a combat high. During this stage, your Psyche will be stabilized, and Snake will take less damage, but there is a serious caveat – once the high is over, his Stress and Psyche gauges will bottom out to represent the drop in adrenaline he undergoes. This leaves Snake extremely vulnerable to attacks, so players will need to balance this state carefully. This tightrope balance between Stress and Psyche encourages balance between stealth and action and helps MGS4 appeal to stealth and action fans, as well as a wider audience of players, engaging many of them with its varied gameplay. Regardless of the method that you use to explore the game's environments, there are two gadgets that will help Snake immensely. The first one is the Solid Eye System, which frees him from the constant swapping back and forth between goggles and binoculars in the field. Not only does the Solid Eye System include night vision and binoculars, it identifies all personnel on the battlefield by their group affiliation, weapon carried and any items that they've dropped on the battlefield. This provides a large amount of tactical information that can be exploited by stealth or brute force.

Now that's actually a challenge.

The other gadget is the Mark II, the small robot that Otacon provides to Snake. The Mark II is an extremely versatile item because it can be used as an advance scout for Snake. Thanks to its small size and its ability to turn invisible, players can use the Mark II to get a sense of where enemies and other hazards may lie, which gives them an advantage in battle. It can also be used to incapacitate soldiers, as it can deploy a powerful shock similar to Snake's Stun Knife, which is another great way to quietly bypass guards. What's more, the Mark II can be used to collect weapons and items, and because the Mark II is a communication conduit that Snake can use to contact Drebin, any weapons it collects are instantly converted to Drebin points as well. This is a safe way to pick up guns in the midst of a firefight without exposing Snake to any undue fire, provided that he deploys the robot from a protected location. Even more than the style of play and the various gadgets that can impact the overall experience during battle, the Drebin system touches a primal collection urge within players, where they get a sense that running out and gathering every single pistol, rifle and grenade is innately tied to their survival in the midst of battle. However, it also establishes Snake as another cog in the war economy, one who will exploit the system from the inside in order to protect the rest of the world from its ravages by any means necessary. In some ways, this extends to Snake's ability to gain allies on the battlefield. It may sound like a strange concept, but the fact that the world is engaged in factionalized warfare means that Snake can sometimes exploit this division to his advantage. As you move throughout the various environments in the game, you'll come across different militia troops that are fighting the PMCs for control of their locations. Players essentially are presented with two options in this situation: on one hand, players can retain a lone wolf focus, proceeding on their own, fighting PMC and militia alike. This is perhaps the most traditional way of fighting through a Metal Gear Solid title, and will add an extra challenge as just about every single person in the environment will be hostile to Snake. On the other hand, they can attempt to gain the trust of these local troops by fighting alongside them, attempting to gain their trust by attacking the PMCs. By building a reputation as a freedom fighter that believes in their cause, the militiamen will aid you in your mission, providing additional fire support during skirmishes and even eliminating PMC soldiers for you. What's more, the PMCs will help Snake out by giving him different items, such as ammunition or health items in battle. However, you'll have to be careful with your aim in the middle of a fight. If you accidentally wind up endangering the militia troops, you can ruin your standing with them, turning them into enemies. That forces you to try to regain their trust after a while, or attempt to bypass their attacks with careful disguises that make you appear to be one of their organization.

Let's get ready to rumble!

All of the above elements contribute to the compelling plot of Metal Gear Solid 4, which is nothing short of incredible for two primary reasons. First of all, as the final chapter in the Solid series, it wraps up every single loose end that has been included within the franchise. Players that have been looking for answers to questions that may have been raised within previous games will find them within MGS4, which is an incredible feat. Many of the mission briefings not only explain where you're going in your next mission, but also cover large sections of topical information to the series. The Patriots, Foxdie, Metal Gear -- somehow, the Kojima Productions team managed to condense all of the franchise's obscure concepts into easily digestible plotlines that players can follow and understand. That's not to say that it will be perfectly clear for beginners, but it does its best to explain as much as possible. In a way, some of the cutscenes play out like CliffsNotes for the Metal Gear Solid universe, providing additional details for those players that have been actively following the franchise while summarizing and explaining what's going on for newcomers. In some ways, this provides more than enough impetus for franchise beginners to fully acquire and explore the previous games in the series, such as the Metal Gear Solid: Essential Collection. Secondly, while Metal Gear Solid games have always been resonant with issues of the day, MGS4 is particularly layered with allegories and topics both to previous games in the series and the real world that reveal a subtle amount of depth. Kojima weaves a tale that explores complex elements such as the horrors of war and its effects on civilians, technology gone horribly awry, mental manipulation and control (whether by technology or an organization) and personal sacrifice into a tour de force experience. In many ways, the number of topics addressed within the title and how they are handled within the title and franchise are large enough to be worthy of a dissertation on its own. There is a caveat to the exploration of these topics, which is that the cutscenes or dialogue sequences that occur around the exposition of these plot pieces can be somewhat lengthy. In fact, the longest cutscene within the game clocks in around 45 minutes, which can be rather daunting by the numbers. However, the scenes themselves are engaging enough that most players won't pay attention to the clock, although you can pause the cutscenes if you need a break or life interrupts, which is an excellent addition for this title.

They look hideous, but they're deadly in battle.

All of these features contribute to an excellent gameplay experience, but additionally striking are its visuals, which make MGS4 one of the best looking titles to date in gaming history. It's apparent that Guns of the Patriots squeezes every pixel possible out of the PS3 and renders them beautifully. As a result, players are witnesses to one of the finest games ever created on any console or PC. Character models are large and impressively rendered in real time, and transitions between cutscenes and gameplay are seamless and natural. What's more, certain action sequences are just as sharp and framed as well as many Hollywood action movies, and there are some moments in particular which surpass film in the way the story is told. Much of this has to do with camera angles that showcase the game action exquisitely – it's rather obvious that from Subsistence on, Kojima Productions has focused on creating a camera system that works exactly the way you want it to, allowing players to experience the entire game from first person if they so choose, or swapping between shoulders with a click of the right analog stick. Environments pop with sharp details as well, and there are subtle little touches, like dirt that will settle on the camera lens or water droplets that will lightly cascade down the screen. Further helping the game showcase its heightened visuals is the fact that the title performs a large basic install for eight minutes, with individual act installs at the end of every chapter. These secondary installs take only a few minutes, but are quite important. Once one stage installs over another, the replaced textures, levels and environments cut down on load times and transitions. That's not to say that the visuals don't come without some issues. While a few textures are flat here and there (with some low res issues now and then) and light framerate drops during gigantic explosions, these issues are generally overwhelmed by the level of detail shown within the game and the cinematic scope of the title, which highlights what a masterpiece this game is. This is also supported with an excellent soundtrack, such as "Love Theme" which is one of the best songs of the MGS4 series. Haunting and melodic with a tone that evokes loss and remembrance, this song feels rather appropriate for the sentiment of this title. The soundtrack also covers the entire breadth and depth of the MG universe thanks to the included iPod functionality, which plays various songs that you unlock once you've discovered the classic songs throughout the game. Further strengthening the title is the fact that Snake and every other character also sound phenomenal within the game, showcasing a masterful delivery with their dialogue.

Use your cover as best as possible, or go in guns blazing. The choice is yours.

I haven't gone over all of the features within the title, such as the photo gallery which stores and displays pictures taken by Snake with his camera, or the virtual range which lets you practice with the various firearms that you have within the title. Nor have I mentioned the exquisite evolution of the control scheme, which is the best one yet. But the one other significant feature of MGS4 is the inclusion of Metal Gear Online, which provides a multiplayer feature to a package that is already solid (no pun intended) with its single-player campaign. Technically, Kojima Productions didn't even need to include this section within the game, particularly because it's a starter pack and will be expanded into a full online product by itself. But what's included on the disc is a good sneak peek of what to expect from the multiplayer realm of Metal Gear. Similar to that of the beta test, Metal Gear Online features five multiplayer maps for up to 16 players to blast their way across. The starter pack now includes two additional stages not seen in the beta, Urban Ultimatum and Ambush Alley. Urban Ultimatum is a large stage that's more impressive due to its verticality than its various nooks and crannies that you can explore – many players can climb the ladders attached to the buildings and take up positions as snipers on rooftops. Ambush Alley, by contrast, is all about stealth and surprise, as the bombed out rubble and smashed buildings provides quite a bit of cover for players to engage and eliminate unsuspecting enemies.

Simply the best.

While you will have to register for a Konami ID and register one character for your online play (sorry Beta players, all of the old accounts have been reset and your progress has been lost), the process is infinitely easier and runs much smoother than it did in April. A few minor adjustments have been made to MGO, such as a change of skill names to more descriptive terms. For example, the Throwing Skill that governed how well you could throw grenades has changed to Quarterback, while the Fast Movement Skill has changed to Runner. It doesn't affect the skill itself; it's only to help you decide at a glance which trait you want to assign to Snake. Another change is with the Clan creation. Whereas you could be level 2 in the beta with a light number of hours invested, in the full game you need to be at least level 3 with 20 hours of play before you can create your own clan. One final change that we noted was with the online music selection; players can pick and choose from two original tracks or from songs pulled from all 21 years of the MGS franchise. It's pretty sweet to blast someone in Groznyj Grad to the Tara track from Metal Gear. During Sneaking missions, only Snake can decide the music selection, but that seems appropriate considering that he is the target of both teams. We did have reservations with the first two downloadable selections, however. One of them is simply a codec pack that allows players to audibly make comments during games, while the other sells additional characters for your Konami ID. The codec pack isn't crucial or useful, and the price for extra soldiers seems a little high right now. But considering that you don't need to buy either one of them to experience the action that is raging across servers right now, that's a minor problem that can be addressed by Konami at any time.

Closing Comments
Is it possible to give a game an 11? If so, this would be the game that would merit that score. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a title that exceeds all of the hype that was attached to the title. Regardless of whether you've seen every trailer and screenshot, read every preview and heard every interview, you won't get a full sense of how phenomenal this title is unless you sit down and experience it for yourself.

Legends die hard and deserve a heroic story that lives on when they are gone. Metal Gear Solid 4 is such an ending for the legendary warrior Solid Snake. Not only does it sum up the full franchise of Metal Gear, its depth and its complexity, coupled with its technical prowess, make it one of the best games of the year and, indeed, one of the best games ever made. Get some well earned rest, Snake. You've earned it. We salute you.

Another Take
from Greg Miller
Buy this game. I don't care if the gameplay in the past titles didn't appeal to you, I don't care if long cutscenes scare you, and I don't care if you're broke.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is the best reason to own a PlayStation 3 thus far.

I've played every Metal Gear Solid game since the series won me over in 1998, and I can tell you that I have never felt as connected to Snake as I did in this game. Hell, I've never felt this connected to any character in any other videogame that I've played. Our hero has gone from a soldier in his prime to an elderly warrior trying to make a difference. We see Snake struggle, we see Snake win, we see Snake lose, we see Snake relax, and we see Snake become a truly three-dimensional character. Whether he's chilling on the Nomad in street clothes, discussing his turn of fortune with "friends," or taking part in the game's phenomenal final boss battle, this is the greatest iteration of the character that I have ever seen.

This game is emotional, powerful, fun, beautiful, deep, engaging, and just about every other positive adjective you could assign it. Metal Gear Solid 4 pulls you in and doesn't let you go until the final, final credits roll.

I'm sad to see Snake go, but he couldn't have asked for a better sendoff.

IGN Ratings for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)

Rating	Description
10	Presentation A story worthy of a feature length film, with action that keeps you engaged from the second you hit the start button 'til the final credits roll.
10	Graphics Incredibly detailed and visually breathtaking, with amazing camera angles, MGS4 is one of the most beautiful titles ever made.
10	Sound Haunting melodies, the re-introduction of classic themes via iPod, and perfect line delivery by actors -- this is an aural delight from start to finish.
10	Gameplay Not only does MGS4 include new gameplay mechanics, it shatters the mold of what's expected from the series. Stealth, action, or balanced play: the choice is yours in how you explore this MGS world.
10	Lasting Appeal There are dozens of secrets and Easter Eggs, along with tons of ways to approach any combat situation. Plus, when you're done with the single player, MGO will keep you engaged for weeks on end.
10 Masterful	OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)

STOP-LOSS NOW AVAILABLE

STOP-LOSS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

HERE IS THE SUMMARY FOR THE MOVIE STOP-LOSS FROM IMDB

Decorated Iraq war hero Sgt. Brandon King makes a celebrated return to his small Texas hometown following his tour of duty. He tries to resume the life he left behind. Then, against Brandon's will, the Army orders him back to duty in Iraq, which upends his world. The conflict tests everything he believes in: the bond of family, the loyalty of friendship, the limits of love and the value of honor. Written by Paramount Pictures

HERE IS A REVIEW FOR THE MOVIE STOP-LOSS FROM DVDTALK


No matter what the behind-the-scenes politics involved, it's taken filmmaker Kimberly Peirce nine years to come up with something to follow her 1999 near-masterpiece, "Boys Don't Cry." Maybe her vision rusted shut or inflammable passions on the Iraq War clouded her judgment, but "Stop-Loss" is a miscalculated heap of screwy intentions, abysmal acting, and crudely-realized sermonizing.

While stationed in Iraq, Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) watched in horror as his friends were killed by militants and the country he was fighting to stabilize refused to cooperate with the U.S.'s noble objective. Now finally free of his military duty, Brandon is looking forward to civilian life with pals Steve (Channing Tatum) and Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), only to find he's been "stop-lossed," or contractually forced to return to active duty. Frustrated with the government's deception, Brandon goes AWOL and hits the road with Steve's fiancée Michelle (Abbie Cornish, mangling a Texan drawl) in an effort to overturn his contract, finding that only leaving America entirely will solve his problems.

The failure of "Stop-Loss" is amazing to behold considering the excellence of "Boys Don't Cry." This isn't about idiotic cries of a "fair and balanced" view of American troop experiences or other tangled political issues; it concerns Peirce failing the material at nearly every turn of the ham-fisted screenplay, using a jackhammer to sell her zeal when only light tapping was required. It's a fumbled passion play intended to jab at unfair U.S. policy and further explore the quagmire of Iraq. Instead, "Stop-Loss" features cartoonish lessons on disillusionment and irksome actors trying to blue-steel the crap out of each other.

While watching "Stop-Loss" unfold, I couldn't help but think of Oliver Stone's majestic "Born on the Fourth of July," which covered essentially the same cultural and political terrain, only Stone knew to wield his topic carefully; he made certain primary filmmaking functions were attended to before diving off into personal stances. "Stop-Loss" is a hollow creation by comparison, barely making time to introduce its plethora of characters and their torment before trotting off to the next hackneyed scene of mental combustion.

The failure of this picture doesn't suggest I believe the military agony offered in "Stop-Loss" is misleading (that would be foolish considering the shape the world is in today), but the hell presented here is devoid of gravitas and rage. It steps into soap opera realms where the actors are incapable of holding an internal thought, instead heaving stiffly-considered words at the screen - perhaps an inch too articulate when placed into the context of blinding frustration.

Peirce wants to spread out her ideas on the futility of the Iraq War and the government's inability (or flat-out refusal) to protect those in combat. These men and women are open wounds at this point, caught between monolithic ideals of patriotism and the never-ending parade of death that awaits them overseas. The intent of "Stop-Loss" is palpable and commendable, but everything is executed with a fingerless futility that starts with the brainless casting and works its way through the picture's stunning lack of vision for characterization and resolution.

Just what the hell is Michelle doing following Brandon around the country? Who knows, since Pierce creeps away from the obvious sexual tension like a blushing schoolgirl. Actually, it takes Pierce a full 80 minutes to even address how Michelle is involved in the scenario. The same lack of finesse is found with the Tommy subplot, which never rises above the vet/alcoholic cliché that deserves more careful inspection, or Steve, who comes off more as a vessel for Tatum to try out his new method acting techniques than a rounded character corroded with relatable aggravation. Let's be honest here: "Stop-Loss" plays like a good hour of footage was removed hastily, turning a considerate examination of emotions into awkward bullet points.

The chasm between intention and execution is abyssal here, and I began to feel disinterest the more "Stop-Loss" kept forcing itself upon the audience. Go rent "Boys Don't Cry" and you'll find a movie infatuated with unspoken degrees of longing and violence. "Stop-Loss" is as transparent a statement as you'll find in this medium, and to originate from a director once held in such high esteem is a truly upsetting development.

HERE IS THE DIRECT DOWNLOAD FOR THE MOVIE STOP-LOSS.

FIRE IN HOLLYWOOD SET HAS GOT A LITTLE MORE DESPERATE AND GHOSTLY

HOLLYWOOD FIRE THAT LAST WEEK HIT THE DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES SET AND MORE

HERE IS THE ARTICLE FROM YAHOO NEWS

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Wisteria Lane has survived tornadoes, catfights and now, raging infernos.

An ABC representative for the hit series Desperate Housewives tells E! News that there is "no damage to Wisteria Lane" from Sunday morning's massive blaze at the Universal Studios backlot, despite earlier rumors. The show's infamous neighborhood is housed on the property.

However, CBS' Ghost Whisperer, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, may not have fared as well. A press executive for the studio tells E! News, "Preliminary reports say just two exterior sets were damaged."

They haven't received the full report yet but do not think the damage is extensive enough to delay production on the show.

Neither Universal's CityWalk nor theme park were damaged, but the park was shut down for the day. The MTV Movie Awards, hosted by Mike Meyers, is scheduled to go on as planned Sunday night at 5 p.m. in Universal's Gibson Amphitheatre.

At least 400 firefighters were called in to quench the at times 100-foot-high flames, which broke out around 4:45 a.m. and tore through a soundstage and several buildings and famous movie sets.

The King Kong exhibit, New York and New England streetscapes, the iconic Back to the Future set (including the clock tower) were extensively damaged, as was the studio's television video archive. Four firefighters and a sheriff's deputy were also injured, although not severely.

Crews are bulldozing demolished buildings and heavy smoke continues to pour out of the fire, eight hours after it started.