Shmee.Me

May 4, 2013May 4, 2013

I Give Blade Runner a Second Chance

Blade Runner is the landmark 1982 Sci-Fi film by Ridley Scott. This movie has always been a source of conflict for me because it has things I like in a movie, a realistic dystopian future, a film noir atmosphere, and Harrison Ford at the top of his career, but I didn’t like it the first time I saw it, but since it is held in such high regard, and the Blu-Ray was five dollars on Amazon, I decided to give it another try.

The film is about a special type of police officer a Blade Runner that hunts down and ‘retires’ (kills) replicated human type beings (Replicants). This is because the Replicants had rebelled against their creators and thus banished from Earth. Harrison Ford plays Richard Decker a Blade Runner that has been enlisted to find four Replicants that have come to Earth to try and find the key to live past their four year lifespans.

Despite the Sci-Fi trappings, this is really just a Film Noir Detective Movie from the 1940s but made in the 1980’s, and that is probably why I didn’t like it the first time I watched it because these type of movies take their time to set the mood, drink a lot of whiskey, and be generally unhappy, and in my youth I didn’t have the patience for such things, but this time I was much more contented to let the movie suck me in. Like many good detective films this movie doesn’t answer all the questions it asks, and the people in the movie are no better off when the movie ends than when it started.

The best part of this movie is by far the set and production design: the always dark and rainy LA with the over crowding and neon Asian signs. It just seems like a real place, and you can tell why this movie set the look for so many films and shows that followed. Firefly and the new Total Recall to name a couple. Between this movie and Alien Ridley Scott cemented his place as one of Sci-Fi’s greatest film makers.

I liked this movie much more the second time I watched it. It blends the Sci-Fi setting and the Film Noir style so well that I am ashamed to have disliked it so much the first time I watched it. Maybe there are more films I need to revisit.

May 3, 2013May 3, 2013

Can you defeat The Man with the Iron Fists?

The Man with the Iron Fists is a Kung-Fu action movie written, directed, and stared in by Wu-Tang Clan rapper RZA. He has created sound tracks for several movies, mostly by Quentin Tarantino, but can he translate that experience into successfully creating a full film? It is a valiant fist try, but it comes up a little short.

The movie’s plot is fairly simple. The Governor of the province is shipping gold through a town named Jungle Village. This town happens to be caught between a never ending conflict with its warring clans, so the Governor pays one of the clans to protect the gold, but things go quickly wrong, and soon it is every man for himself in Jungle Village.

This movie starts off great with a Kung-Fu fight choreographed with a killer Hip Hop beat, and if the whole movie would have been like this it would have been an instant action cult classic, but sadly it looses its way. When people are not fighting in this movie it is stilted and boring.

Most of the actors handle the action of this movie well, but once that talking starts they are awful. With the notable exceptions of Lucy Liu and Russell Crowe. They seem to having a great time in this movie being. It is like they are on vacation in a bad movie or something and it is wonderful to watch them. They took on their roles with vigor and kind of just went for it.

The Man with the Iron Fists could have been a great movie, but as it is it is just an amusing movie with Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu having a good time. It is a shame it couldn’t live up to the first few minutes of the movie.

May 2, 2013

Should You Subscribe to Funimation?

I was finding the anime selection on Netflix and Amazon lacking, so I decided to try the one month free trial to Funimation a large anime distributor, and after a month I can tell you that this is one of the worst streaming services out there.

When I went on the site it did look like they had a lot content with some shows I had never seen before, and your supposed to be able to watch it in its native language with subtitles or dubbed in English even as it comes out in Japan, but the problem is that the site is so slow you can’t really watch any of it. It is all stuttery, and the site is super slow to even search the site for shows to watch in the first place.

I love the idea of a good anime streaming service, but Funimation is not it. I hope they can figure it out, and maybe I will try it out again later after they have worked on their service a bit, but for now no one should use their service.

May 1, 2013

Sad To See Eureka Go

I finally started watching the last season of Eureka. I have been putting it off because I didn’t want it to end. For those of you that don’t know Eureka is about a town of super geniuses that are kept in check by an average Joe named Sheriff Jack Carter. It only lasted five season because the folks over at NBC decided that it was to expensive to keep going.

The show had so many great characters and quirky pseudosciencey stories it was like watching a tongue and cheek Sci-Fi pulp novel. If you want to watch some fun light hearted Sci-Fi, then Eureka more then fits the bill. I can only hope the Sy-Fy Channel finds a show worthy to replace it.

April 30, 2013

What Do I Want From Next Gen Consoles?

Microsoft is about to announce its next Xbox on May 21st, Sony already had their announcement, and Nintendo launched their new Wii U, but what do I want out of my next console? From the sound of things Sony and Microsoft seem to think what I want is to get my Social Network feeds streaming to my TV, and that I want to share everything I do with the world, but that sounds awful to me. I am not a huge fan of social media as it is, so to have it bombarding me while I play games sounds like the worst thing ever. So here is what I do want.

I want a platform that is easy to develop for, so that I can get all the latest indie games, and along with that I want an online store that is easy to find stuff in. I don’t want to have to hunt around for the title I want; I just want it to be there at my finger tips waiting for my money. Speaking of the store, I want to not only buy little indie games in it, but also be able to buy new AAA games there, and be able to preload them like with Steam on the computer.

For some the whole reason to upgrade is the graphics, and that is less of an issue for me because the graphics for the most part are pretty good these days, so what I want is for there to less loading screens, and clean up the jagged lines. If the new consoles can do those two things I will be happy.

I would also like more TV viewing options. The current consoles are already great streaming boxes, but I would love to have more choices, and for more TV companies to do what the CW did, and allow people to watch their shows as they come out without a subscription to cable. Nice work CW!

I am excited to see what the next generation of consoles will bring, but I am also scared that they will turn my living room in to a place where people are going to shout their social feeds at me. If I can get what I want above, and be able to turn off the social media I will be a happy camper.