One White Lie: The Hunt Review

Plot: 9/10 The movie has a very simple plot. It involves a little girl telling a lie that the main character, Lucas, molested her. The community goes crazy and hates Lucas more and more as time goes on. His son Marcus eventually plays a part in the story, as he tries to defend his dad but nobody believes him either. How can Lucas prove his innocence?

Music: 9/10 Fits the mood. It's very somber and depressing, just like the movie.

Acting: 10/10 Superb. The lead actor (Villain from Casino Royale)  has already received numerous awards, he is that good in this movie. Everyone else is also excellent, especially the guy who played Marcus. (The movie is Danish, along with the actors, so I'm not going to try and type their names.

F/X: N/A It is a quiet movie and has no special effects at all.

Entertainment: 9/10 Even though the movie was very quiet and low budget, I was still on the edge of my seat. You cannot take your eyes off this emotional ride.

Overall: 9.5/10

Apocalyptic Beauty: The Last of Us Review

The Last of Us

Joel teaches Ellie how to use a rifle.

Concept: Set in a post-apocalyptic universe, smuggler Joel must escort a girl named Ellie out of the Boston Quarantine Zone and into the hands of the Fireflies, a faction created to stop the spread of the infection.

Graphics: I forgot I was even playing a game at some points. Absolutely beautiful, from the environments, to the character designs.

Sound: I actually downloaded the soundtrack for this game onto my iPod, it was that good. The voice acting was top notch and the cutscenes played out like movies.

Playability: The controls are solid and the gunplay is solid. A challenging game, ammo is very scarce and you will spend a lot of time searching for supplies. The mulitplayer does a great job incorporating the scavanger feel of single player to 4v4 matches.

Entertainment: You will not find a more emotional, realistic story anywhere exceot for Hollywood. Smooth gunplay and fun multiplayer make this one for the books.

This game is not for the faint-hearted. Combat is brutal!

I never cried while playing a videogame before. That changed within the first 15 min. of this game. Those were the scariest, most intense, emotional minutes I have ever experienced in a game before. But it's not just those 15 min. that are emotionally charged. The whole game is just a massive rollercoaster of feelings. One moment Joel and Ellie are having a cheerful conversation in a car, the next they are getting ambushed by hunters. The story is perfect. I never thought I would see so much symbolism in a game before. 

Wrong person to hit in the face.

Combat is brutal beyond words (as shown above). The player is able to pick up baseball bats, 2x4s, machetes, and lead pipes to use as weapons. Better yet, if the player has the proper supplies, he/she can craft an improved version of any blunt object by adding blades to the ends of the weapon for insta-kills. Molotov cocktails, nail bombs, and shivs can also be created to use as weapons. Stealth is a great option for those low on supplies. Joel can sneak up on both zombies and hunters and take them out. Ammo can be hard to find, but weapons can be upgraded at benches the player finds. More guns are acquired as the player progresses (Shotgun > Everything else).

This is the actual game.

I really do not want to say anything else about the game for fear that I will spoil things. All I know is that every other game I play does not or will not compare to this.

Overall 10/10

   You will remember this picture :(

Conjuring Up Terror

Concept: Expose a horrifying true story about a family requesting the aid of two ghost hunters in dealing with an evil presence in their new home.

Review:

Plot: 9/10 An evil spirit haunts a family in their new home. The family then requests the help of Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), two ghost hunters, to deal with this menace. Not very original right? Well, this is based on a true story so think again. Even the Annabelle Doll is real! (Although the one in the movie was much scarier than the one in real life, whcih was a Raggedy Anne doll). I reasearched the story and the movie does exagerate some things, but the incident really happened. 

Music: 9/10 That little jingle theme you hear quite a bit in the film still haunts me thinking about it. The actual music is scary and makes the film 2x scarier.

Acting: 8.5/10 Overall the acting is fantastic, especially the children. Patrick Wilson was great as always. I did have a bit of a hard time taking Ron Livingston seriously due to me being so familiar with his role in Office Space, but as the movie got darker and scarier, I got over it. The only person I did not like was Vera Famiga's role. It was kind of cheesy and over the top. She kept giving corny speeches at the weirdest times. 

Special Effects: 9.5/10 Holy crap! The ghosts all looked terrifying (especially the witch, as seen below). The objects AND people being thrown around were very well done. Awesome job effects people!

Entertainment: 10/10 Scariest movie I have ever seen and I have seen a lot. You will NOT get bored. In fact, you will be screaming your head off throughout the whole movie.

Overall: 9.5/10 

WARNING!!!! BELOW IS A TERRIFYING PICTURE OF THE ANNABELLE DOLL AND THE WITCH BATHSHEBA SHERMAN!!!! DO NOT SCROLL DOWN IF YOU HATE SCARY STUFF!!!

Church Hill Food Tour

Last week, my Creative Writing class took a food tour around the Church Hill area in Richmond, Virginia. It was a great time and we got to eat some great food. Real Richmond was the name of the tour service we went with. We first got to eat some delicious BBQ sandwiches that were delivered by bike. They were extremely tasty and I couldn't help but steal a second one. After that we took a little walk down the street and into a pizza place. That was some of the best pizza I have ever had. The sauce was homemade and had a wonderful spice to it. The cheese was stringy, which showed how well it was made. We went back outside into the rain. After another bit of walking, we stopped at a bakery and ate some cake. It was rich and sweet to the point where I could only eat two of them :(. The stop at the closed bakery was pretty sad. Two family members opened a bakery that everyone loved. But unfortunetly, a fire forced the two owners to shut the place down until it is repaired. Our final stop was a pie place and it was packed in there. We ate some pies with vegitables in them. I wasn't a fan. But then I bought a slice of cocoanut cream pie and it was amazing. I highly recommend taking a tour similar to ours. It showed me how much better small food businesses are compared to commercial industries. 9.5/10

Property Pie Company, the place where we ate, of course, pies.















Buff's Corner. This was the pizza place that was incredible.

Dysfunctional Heroes

Concept: Gather a bunch of superheroes together into one dysfunctional team and have them "smash" some aliens to a pulp.

Review

Plot: 5/10 Boring. There is nothing new in the plot that separates it from anything I've seen before. It's funny when the heroes fight with each other, but whenever Captain America (I hate him) gets involved, it just turns cheesy and painful to watch. The villain is terrible. Compared with the monstrosity Bane from The Dark Knight Rises (My favorite villain in any recent movie), he is an absolute pussy. Loki the Pussy wants to enslave the human race so he uses some device or something. I don't know because I couldn't follow the plot. It was pretty confusing.

Music: 5/10 Nothing special. It fits the mood of the movie, but it even sounds cheesy (Blaming Captain America).

Acting: 8/10 Great. Everyone really gives a captivating performance, especially Robert Downey Jr. Jeremy Renner is always great (One of my favorites). Scarlett Johansson is always hot. Samuel L. Jackson is always so Samuel L. Jackson. I swear this is the only movie he is in where he doesn't drop his infamous F-bomb. The acting is all around really good.

Special Effects: 9/10 Amazing. This is where the movie really shines. The final battle is so well done effects wise. Everything that was computer generated looked real. The explosions were cool. The camera work was perfect as it showed all the heroes kicking butt in one fluid camera shot.

Entertainment: 7/10 It'll keep you entertained. Even though there is quite a bit of cheese, it ends up being a great movie, full of action. I'm not a comic guy, but I enjoyed watching a bunch of superheroes battle it out in New York City.

Overall:7.5/10

The Equal Feeling of Equilibrium

Concept: Taking place in a dystopian future where the human capability to feel is illegal, Christian Bale stars as John Preston. Preston is a Cleric, a secret agent for the totalitarian government of Libria. In order to suppress human emotions, the government issues a drug to make the user not be able to feel: Prozium. As a Cleric, Preston must hunt down "sense offenders", or people who can feel emotions. But one day, Preston forgets his morning dose of Prozium. This leads him to be able to feel again, but it also allows him to remember his wife's death. This leads Preston to not only resent the government he has worked for, but leads him to fight against it.

Review

Plot: 8/10 I love the idea of a single man fighting against a totalitarian government (I am a huge fan of V for Vendetta). The plot had a couple pretty nice plot twists, although they contradicted each other. The only plot point I thought was boring was Preston's relationship with Mary O'Brien (Emily Watson), a sense offender who he captured. I understand why it was used, but it was easily one of the films weakest points as the scenes were boring. Of course Sean Bean dies at the beginning, because no movie with Sean Bean is complete without him dying (Literally, he dies in every movie he is in).

Music: 6.5/10 I rate the music of movies because without a good score, then the movie suffers a bit in my opinion. This movie has a pretty poor soundtrack. It fits the movie well, but I wouldn't choose to listen to it any day. It consists of opera and electric music. I'm pretty sure there are just two songs throughout the whole movie that they use. 

Acting: 7/10 Its not bad, but it certainly isn't great. Bale gives a great performance as always. His Cleric partner, however, brings the movie down a bit. Taye Diggs (Who?) plays as Brandt, Preston's replacement partner. I understand that he has to play an emotionless person, but he is the worst actor I have seen in a while. It's actually humorous at points how bad he is.

Special Effects: 3/10 Considering this movie was made in 2002, the special effects are terrible. The CGI is laughable at best. The city of Libria is for some random reason very yellow at points. There is even one use of claymation, which I thought didn't exist back in 2002. At least the gun fights looked good. 

Entertainment: (The most important factor) 8/10 Even though there is a lot wrong with the movie, it keeps you very entertained. The action scenes are awesome and Christian Bale is badass, especially at the end. The feel of the movie is pretty fast paced too, although there are a few slow scenes. 

Overall: 7.5/10 

Personal Info

Hey everyone reading this! Here is some information about who I am:

I am making this blog to make movie and video game reviews and share them with the world. Yes, I'm fully aware that it is not an original idea at all, but video games and movies are my top two interests. I have been playing video games since I was eight years old and haven't stopped since. I just recently got into watching movies with a reviewer mindset, so I figured I would write some movie reviews in a blog. I hope you all enjoy the posts that I will be making in the future. Thanks!

Other Info:

Age: 17
Favorite Movies: Christopher Nolan Batman Trilogy, Inception, Evil Dead (Both versions)
Favorite Games: Grand Theft Auto V, The Last of Us, Mass Effect Trilogy
Music: Iron Maiden, Opeth, N.W.A.