Author: Shmee

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Geeky Fall TV Is Ramping Up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2yLK6LYe78

Ash Vs. Evil Dead is the first show or movie that has made me wish that I had Starz.  I need to watch this show somehow.  The behind the scenes footage above makes me want to watch it even more.  Lucy Lawless and Bruce Campbell are like peanut better and jelly, and them together fighting the dead is just too perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM9DP1uqhcg

Unlike The Evil Dead, Heroes was not something I was clamoring for more of, but it looks like they learned their lessons and are going to deliver a good show.  Or at least it seems that way from this behind the scenes featurette.  I hope so because a good X-Men like weekly could be a lot of fun.

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Shmee Doesn’t Fear The Walking Dead! So Far…

Fear-the-Walking-Dead

The wife and I got around to watching the first episode of Fear the Walking Dead last night, and while it was okay, so far the show has prequel problems.  These aren’t problems that can’t be fixed or resolved as the show goes on, but they left the debut hour and half episode feeling a little flat.

Fear the Walking Dead starts off before the events of the Walking Dead proper, so the world has not yet plunged in to zombie chaos.  Instead it is on the verge.  A young heroin addict (Frank Dillane) sees his former friend eat some of the other residents of a drug den.  When he gets in an accident soon after and is questioned by the cops obviously no one believes him.

Therein lies the problem: we trust the drug addict because we know what is happening and going to happen.  Like all prequels, we have more knowledge of events then the characters on screen, so it kills some of the suspense, or at least it doesn’t let us disbelieve along with the cast.  We know.  Which is unfortunate because this is a long episode, so they really want this slow burn story to build that nonexistent suspense, but instead you are just waiting for them to get on with it.

The writers are also using the audiences’ knowledge to be a little lazy.  There is a scene where the addict’s parents (Kim Dickens and Cliff Curtis) go and investigate the place where the son saw the events take place, and there is evidence of some brutal happening, so what to do they do?  Call and tell the police of an apparent homicide?  Nope.  They go home.  Why you ask?  Because the writers know that you know the end of the world is happening post haste, so lets not waste time on getting the cops involved.  The problem is that the characters don’t know the end of the world is coming, so of course they would have called.  Like I said, prequel problems.

Now judging by next week’s preview a lot of these problems will go away since the end is nigh.  Then we will pretty much just have a Walking Dead: LA.  Which is a little disappointing because I was hoping for a more of a how/why things fell apart story, not just another location for the show.  Who knows maybe I will still get what I want.  There are five episodes left, so I will watch and see.

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CD Projekt RED Doesn’t Owe You Better Mod Tools!

the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-wallpaper

Gamers are an odd bunch.  CD Projekt RED made one of the most massive RPGs of all time in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, released 16 free downloadable content packs, and are hard at work on two expansions they say will add over thirty hours of play time to the game, but a group of PC gamers are saying they are going to boycott the company.  Did CD Projekt RED encrypt their game with some sort of virus like DRM scheme (I still remember Sony!)?  Nope.  Actually there is no DRM, the problem is that some gamers feel that the free mod tools that were released aren’t good enough.

That’s right the free tools you can use to change and add to the game are not all encompassing.  I mean how dare CD Projekt RED even release their game.  It is like some sort of travesty.  Sure since the game is DRM free you could simply decompile it and use or make your own tools, but that is besides the point!  Or this could be some sort of major overreaction on a massive scale.  Yeah I am definitely thinking this is an overreaction.  I mean I am not even sure how gamers think they have the right to be so upset.  Sure there is nothing wrong with asking if CD Projekt RED is ever going to update the tools with a few more features, but to be mad about a developer bending over backwards to make gamers happy is baffling.

I would love to say that this is the first time gamers have been so upset by so little, but I can’t.  Heck they had already blown-up about The Witcher 3 because they thought the graphics were “downgraded” from the promos they saw earlier.  Gamers did have a couple of instances were the promos did look better then the game that shipped, but overall The Witcher 3 is one of the best looking games ever made, so to be so angry about amazing visuals is so mind bogglingly off-base I can’t even begin to understand where they are coming from.

All of this to say game developers owe us nothing.  They make a game, and if we like it we buy it.  That is the relationship, and I have to say The Witcher 3 is a game that pretty much everyone should play (if you are an adult).  It is that good.  Now if the lack of complete mod tools and slightly less than perfect visuals mean that you are uninterested in the game, fine don’t buy it.  That is your choice, but if you bought the game before the mod tools were out, and now you are angry they are not up to snuff, that was the gamble you took.  It is shame that “all” you got for your money is “only” one of the greatest modern RPGs of all time, and you can only mod it a little (or a lot if you wait for people to make their own tools).  I hope you will be able to deal with those poor amazing graphics too.

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Shmee Finds No Escape!

No-Escape

Well this is an odd turn, I get to tell you my thoughts on a movie before its official release.  Sure it is a movie almost no one has ever heard of, but still maybe this review will be of use to someone.  Hah! Who am I kidding no one reads this blog.  Anyway… the movie in question is No Escape by John Erick Dowdle, and being distributed by The Weinstein Company.

Businessman Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson) needs to get his family out of a Southeast Asian country after a violent coup.  The militants are killing any foreigners or government loyalists they find on site.  The Dwyers will need to get lucky and have a little help from a foreign operative named Hammond (Pierce Brosnan).  Otherwise there will be No Escape! (See what I did there!  Pretty great if I do say so myself.)

That is pretty much the whole movie.  The Dwyers are chased by militants.  Basic plots can work well for films like this, but No Escape’s problem is that it can’t figure out what kind of film it wants to be: gritty thriller or jaunty action film.  So the tone is all over the place.  One second people are telling jokes, the next they are showing you something truly terrible.  It is kind of jarring.  If you are going to go gritty and dark go for it, make everyone gasp in horror, or if you are going for a light weight thrill ride, commit so the audience can settle in and enjoy themselves.

Since they pretty much cast a whole country as the villain they decided like halfway through the film to have Pierce Brosnan’s character just info dump what the coup was all about.  That way you can empathize with the horrible violence?  I guess?  Speaking of Brosnan, his character was definitely part of a jaunty action movie, and I think I would have liked his movie better: cracking wise and shooting bad guys.  It would have been clichéd as all get out, but fun.  Owen Wilson’s thriller was okay, but it was a little dull.  Based on some of Wilson’s jokes, I think he would have liked to be in Brosnan’s No Escape too.

One last thing I really have to mention, if you can’t handle shaky-cam filmography stay far away from this film.  My friend had a hard time getting though No Escape, and he ended up almost as sweaty as the characters on screen.  The camera shakes around so much it was hard to see what was going on.  Sure the fact that since seating was limited we had to sit right up front did not help, but sitting further back would have just made it a less nauseating blur.

In the end No Escape wasn’t a truly bad film it just couldn’t figure out what it wanted to be, and that kept it from being good.  I don’t regret watching this movie for free, so I guess my recommendation is to wait until it hits the streaming service of your choosing.  Due to the weak advertising campaign, complete lack of buzz, and late August release date you probably won’t have to wait long.

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Non Humans Are On The Loose!

humans-amc

AMC’s first short season of Humans has come to a close, and I have to say it was pretty great overall, though if you as ask me (you didn’t, but this is my blog, so I asked me) the last episode fell kind of flat.  Had they ended on episode seven it would left the show in a much more interesting place.  Though I understand that they needed to kind of put a bow on everything just in case Humans was not renewed.  Which it has, and I think that is fantastic.  More quality TV to waste away those long hot summer nights.

I am kind of hoping that Humans does feature some sort of robot revolution at some point.  It would be kind of interesting to watch man’s own creation doom them.  We will see how it turns out for the automatons next year.  It can only get better for them, I can feel it (it will get worse).