Shmee.Me

May 31, 2013May 31, 2013

Join Shmee for the Tron Uprising!

Tron: Uprising was a show on Disney XD for the Summer of 2012, and it has since landed on Netflix. Since I love all things Tron I had to try it out and watch it, and I am glad I did since it may be the best entry into the Tron franchise.

The show is about a young program named Beck (Elijah Wood) trying to lead a revolution by taking Tron’s name against the local occupation while being instructed by Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) himself. He has good friends to help him along the way Mara (Mandy Moore) and Zed (Nathan Corddry), and some other old Tron characters may show up along the way. This series serves as a way to bridge the gap between Tron and Tron: Legacy.

Elijah Wood’s performance nails the young program trying to be more then he is, and anything with the real Tron Bruce Boxleitner in it is awesome. The rest of the cast do their jobs well, but the show really hinges on Tron and Beck, so it is good that they cast them so well.

The look they created for the show is great. They took the aesthetic from Tron: Legacy and then stylized it even more, so the show is full of deep blacks with cool neon accents. There is a ton of action in this show with Disc fights, and light cycle/jet/ATV chases, and it seems like they have a new way to frame it every time so it doesn’t get old.

I really like this show, so it stands to reason that its future is uncertain. It did not get the viewership ratings to justify a second season, but Disney knows it has a good thing going so they haven’t officially canceled it, and they are looking for somewhere else to put it, but even if it does get canceled at least we got these nineteen episodes.

May 30, 2013May 30, 2013

Don’t fall Asleep with Alan Wake

Alan Wake is a game made in 2010 by Remedy Entertainment, and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It is Remedy’s second franchise after Max Payne, and I am glad to say that they continue their tradition of quality with this game. I know your asking why I took three years to try it, but that is because I am cheap and it was five dollars on the Xbox Live Arcade.

Alan Wake starts off with the title character Alan Wake and his wife Alice on a trip to a secluded Washington town called Bright Falls. They are going there to take a break and hopefully find a cure for Alan’s crippling writer’s block: Alan is a writer but he hasn’t been able to write anything for two years. During their first night in Bright Falls something happens and Alice goes missing, and Alan can’t remember what happened, and the town’s inhabitants seem to be turning into monsters when the lights go out. Can you save Alice and Bright Falls?

The game is separated in to six episodes, and each one starts off with a “Previously on Alan Wake”. The creators did this because they love the show Twin Peaks, and used it for some of the setup for this game. There is also a lot of Hitchcock and Stephen King to found here too, but it all comes together and works. This is a very creepy game, and it made me jump more then once.

The gameplay is deceptively simple, you must shine your flashlight on the bad guys to where down their darkness and then you can shoot them with whatever gun you have with you. It makes it kind of a dual wielding/lock on mechanic that works very well. You can also make light traps to end the foes that follow you in the dark.

Also along the way you can collect pages to the book that you are apparently writing, it fills in the story, and lets you in on some of the secrets of Bright Falls.

This is a great game, and it was well worth my five dollars, and if you are looking for a game to play this summer you should add this to your list.

May 29, 2013

Hang out with The Duchess of the Shallows

The Duchess of the Shallows is book written by Neil McGarry and Daniel Ravipinto. It is the third book I have read out of the indie fantasy bundle I got. They did a good job with this book, and it was a fun read.

The book is about a teenage girl named Duchess that is living on the streets of the fogy city Rodaas in the district known as the Shallows. She was given a mark, a brass coin with a ‘P’ on it, and she is hoping that it will help her get in with the Gray, a sort of thieves guild. But in order to cash in the mark and join the Gray she will have to complete an almost impossible task all while staying out of the way of the Red, a militia that takes care of the poor, and the White that takes care of the upper classes, and the Black Arms that are just mainly for hire, but also act as the city guard.

Even though this book features kids on the street, and the things that they have to do to survive, the authors keep a sense of humor, charm, and adventure that keeps this book from being dark and depressing. It is a good change of pace from the last book I read.

I also appreciate how this book is not a supper grand adventure that if not completed the world will end. It is just a simple story in a fantasy setting about a girl trying to better herself, and by doing that we get to know the Duchess better, and they also set her up well for future books.

I liked this book a lot and I will be on the lookout for future Duchess of the Shallows books.

May 28, 2013May 28, 2013

Shmee tries Salmon Fishing in the Yemen!

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a 2011 film by Lasse Hallström (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape). It was nominated for the Best Picture Golden Globe. I don’t watch a lot of romantic comedies, but it was a nice change of pace. It was not without issues however.

The movie starts off with the British fisheries office getting a question from a Yemeni sheikh (Amr Waked) about planting salmon in the Yemen river, which of course the fisheries office says is impossible due to the heat, but when the UK needs a feel good middle east story they tell them to at least try, so Doctor Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor) teams up with the sheikh’s account manager Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt) to try and make it happen.

This movie mostly works because of how likable Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt are. They make a perfect on screen couple and you just want them to get together, but here comes my nitpick with the story, Ewan’s character is married, but the movie makes you happy that he is leaving his wife behind even though she hasn’t done anything wrong, so it makes the romance leave a bad taste in my mouth.

The cinematography is wonderful in the movie. With the vast Scotland and desert shots, and then all the wildlife imagery is fantastic. It just makes this movie all the more visually inviting. Lasse Hallström knows how to shoot a movie.

Like I said this movie works mostly due to how much you like the two leads, and the entire movie is so warm it is like curling up with a warm blanket, but it is shame the way they handle Dr. Jones wife it makes the whole movie feel a bit off.

May 27, 2013

The Return of Arrested Development!

After a long hiatus the Bluths are back on TV, well the internet anyway since their show is now on Netflix. Did the show manage to recapture the humor and wit of the show’s original run? I think it did.

The Bluth’s have all gone their separate ways after the events of the third season, and they are all now trying to put their own lives back together. Each character has their own episode or two explaining what they have been up too, and all the shows take place during roughly the same time period, and explains how they end up on a pier for a party known as Quattro de Cinco, and as the different stories intertwine it shows how different seemingly random things that happen each character are caused by a different character.

It is good to see all the characters back and being the losers we have all come to know and love. They are all still funny, and now that they are pretty much fending for themselves they are having a hard time navigating life. The actors have their roles down pat, so there is no need to worry that they changed anyone.

The writers did not seem to skip a beat. They throw so much funny stuff at you it is impossible not to laugh at the family. They also managed to work in almost every side character from the show in to this new series somehow.

So if you have not watched it yet, I would recommend that you do. It is a lot of fun, and I hope the Netflix picks up the fifth season.