Movie News

The Art of Video Games: An Introduction

Smithsonian American Art Museum 2012

By: Lawrence Napoli

[[wysiwyg_imageupload:939:]]The Art of Video Games exhibit is the brain child of Chris Melissinos a veteran producer in the gaming industry who currently serves as Sun Microsystems’ Chief Evangelist and Chief gaming officer.  This exhibit showcases the AV art of gaming from its birth to current manifestation mostly through a multitude of TV and projection booth installations that not only displays the software, but the hardware as well.  This opening weekend is being supplemented by GameFest!, a three day festival featuring open game playing, live music inspired by gaming, movie screenings and panel discussions with current industry professionals.  The lineup of industry notables is quite impressive: Don Daglow, RJ Mical, Mike Mika, Rand Miller, Keith Robinson, Paul Barnett, Mark DeLoura, Ken Levine, Kelly Santiago, Nolan Bushnell, Hideo Kojima and Robin Hunicke. 

Recognition by the Smithsonian is clear evidence of gaming and gaming culture as a significant presence within American culture beyond some taboo cult.  Art is clearly in the eyes of the beholder and while today’s AAA games rival major Hollywood films in terms of production value, the fundamentals of combining malleable imagery with sound, music and text has been a part of the video game at every stage of its evolution.  When the status of “the observer” gets elevated to “the player” the impact of the art within a video game on the individual becomes much more tangible due to the level of interactivity with said art through mechanical control devices such as joysticks, gamepads, motion control and wireless motion tracking. 

The art of the video game represents a collision of creative activities, in and of themselves, considered to be art forms such as programming, drawing, orchestrating, acting, cinematography and writing.  As media entertainment is in constant flux due to the rapid development of technological capability, the video game is merely an additional link in the chain of communication that binds humanity together; linking the creator(s) with the rest of the world.  The potential for influential social commentary remains relatively untapped as video games have not become regularly referenced in the discourse of human behavior such as literature and the cinema.  However, the gaming industry seems to be heading in that direction as games become more cinematic in its pursuit of narrative synergy with the player.

The First Blockbuster of 2012?

A Film Review of John Carter

By: Lawrence Napoli

[[wysiwyg_imageupload:868:]]There’s something to be said about prior knowledge on the viewer’s part, Hollywood film adaptations of that prior knowledge and the resulting experience the viewer has at the theater.  There are very few film adaptations of popular licenses that I know absolutely nothing about before buying my ticket.  I knew nothing about the story of John Carter, its significance or the fact it was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the man who invented Tarzan.  All I had was movie-trailer speculation and the assumption this film was some kind of science-fiction featuring a super-man (of sorts) being the main character who saves the day in some way.  Although these story elements have been done ad nauseam by Hollywood, it was enough to lure me to the theater.  Upon leaving the cinema, I could not help but think that if I was a member of the John Carter cult-club, I probably would have been much more impressed with what I saw.  I would have appreciated all the references, understood the character relations, accepted the dialogue and above all, forgiven the plot gaps.  It led me to conclude that my fan-boy tendencies for certain licensed adaptations actually led to fluffier interpretations rather than meticulous scrutiny.  This fact is the reason why I didn’t absolutely loathe some film adaptations that are often berated for being, generally speaking, terrible: (the first) Resident Evil and Green Lantern.  My esteemed colleague at CBN, Mr. Chris Bushley, often jokes with me that my film criticism is too tough and causes me to “hate” every movie.  To that I say thee “NAY!” but my weakness as a fan-boy will be expunged with better efficiency to leave the fluff at the door in future reviews of films I’m personally anticipating.  As of now, The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises are officially put on notice.   

As for John Carter (the film) there’s a very specific reason why it is being promoted as “the first blockbuster of 2012.”  It happens to be the same reason why it is being released in March, a full two months prior to the beginning of the actual blockbuster season in May.  The reason is because John Carter cannot compete with the actual blockbusters of the summer.  It doesn’t have the star power, it doesn’t have the spectacle and it doesn’t have the compelling story.  Sure, John Carter looks good on paper: pretty boy with abs as lead?  Check.  Sexy babe?  Check.  Action and explosions?  Check.  Aliens and plenty of CG?  Check.  Mickey Mouse’s bottomless pockets to bankroll.  Double check!   John Carter proves that there is no such thing as a “sure thing,” and despite having no significant competition at the box office, it was no match for the previous week’s incumbent champion: The Lorax (a Dr. Seuss animated film well before the beginning of Easter season when these films tend to dominate).  This movie had a production budget estimated at around $250 million and yielded a paltry $30 million on its opening weekend with guaranteed diminishing returns every additional day it spends in theaters.  This is not the kind of money that gets spent on a film that barely approaches a cult following, and the mouse is frowning atop his gigantic golf ball in Orlando.  The two main culprits are 1) Bad marketing (films like Super 8 can clearly relate) and 2) Bad filmmaking (ahem, Green Lantern). 

Word of mouth can play a role in sales for any film, but its only real affect tends to put well made, well reviewed films that much more over the top (see Harry Potter films and Avatar).  The fact that nobody’s talking about John Carter is as damning as negative commentary, both of which you can blame squarely on Disney and Buena Vista for barely making half the promotional effort it consistently makes for all its animated features.  The most impressive thing about this entire project was the teaser trailer that was released last year because it built up the whole mystery of some prophesized messiah on an unknown world theme; none of which was actually part of the story in John Carter.  Disney has some kind of major malfunction with selling live action/adventure/sci-fi because the brand of the mouse can, IN NO WAY, be blemished by the stain of excessive violence, graphic content and adult situations.  For all the cool things that came with the Tron franchise — from experimental filmmaking, to “digital” effects, to thought provoking story and philosophy, those films did not blow the box office away, and the fact that the mouse has no interest in getting down in the mud to wrestle with the elephants (not commit to harder PG-13 types of stories) must be a factor and is worth discussing.  John Carter is so eerily reminiscent of Tron in just about every way save for one: Everything you see in JC has been done before, EVERYTHING. 

Writer-director Andrew Stanton teamed up with Mark Andrews to create the screenplay adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars.  My special note to the reader: “Get to know your writers!” because understanding why a film flies or fails begins with the authors/adapters.  Stanton’s writing credits include Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monster’s Inc., and Finding Nemo, while Andrews is coming from Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars.  Knowing this is particularly interesting seeing how the story of John Carter is laid out and executed in a manner befitting most cartoons: rapidly, without explanation and requiring a healthy amount of faith and acceptance to get through it.  One of Syd Field’s rules to screenwriting suggests that the writer ought to begin the story of the script as close to or interrupting the action as possible.  This creates a hook, without which an audience can be lost to disinterest.  The problem with John Carter’s story is that the only thing that exists in the beginning of the film is the hook with zero foundation in establishing the character, why he exists where he exists, why he behaves a certain way and just what the heck is driving him.  Before the audience learns anything relevant or sympathetic about John, BOOM, he’s on Mars and the rest of the time the audience is just playing catch up. 

John is constantly (and literally) bounding about from one group of characters to the next because he’s caught up in a storm of confusion, which would be interesting if the “fish out of water” angle wasn’t so conveniently and effortlessly dealt with by the biggest BS plot device this side of “midichlorians.”  In the mean time, all these other people John interacts with are very casually introduced because their visual stereotypes are meant to tell their whole stories: green people with tusks and loincloths are “savage,” less cultured, tribes-people while humanoids dressed like the cast of 300 who use technology are the ruling class.   There are no camp-fire, getting-to-know-you scenes that clearly identify and engage the main characters into each other’s conflicts.  The constant need for walking, riding, shooting, flying, etc. from one place to the other simply does not permit this film’s own story to connect to the audience.  The entire plot’s structure plays out like four, half-hour episodes of a cartoon series strung together.  Stanton and Andrews did not even write this live action/sci-fi adaptation like their successful cartoons as they were clearly going for Star Wars, but in their haste to project a plot arc for an entire trilogy they managed to misplace all sense of character, adding to the overall irrelevance of the story and the absurd manner in which it was presented. 

The action, digital graphics and effects are all but carbon-copied from the Star Wars prequel trilogy.  Even John’s ability to jump like MJ on space-aged cocaine-steroids starts off as moderately annoying and ends up being blandly overused.  There is nothing visceral, or even “super” about it.  ‘Nuff said.

When the core of your cast is transplanted from a film of the past noteworthy for its inability to meet expectations (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), this doesn’t traditionally bode well for most films.  Thankfully Lynn Collins (previously Kayla Silverfox, now Princess Dejah Thoris) holds up her end of lead acting responsibility.  Picture Megan Fox with less plastic on her body and face with a brain and talent and this only begins to describe Lynn Collins as an actress.  Although she is called upon to engage in some swordplay and fisticuffs, the most impressive aspect of her performance was her dialogue.  Who knew authentic Martians spoke with an English accent?  Regardless, Collins is quite flawless, featuring a level of speaking proficiency that can only be harnessed at institutions like Julliard and being cast in numerous Shakespearean stage plays.  It goes without saying that she is simply breathtaking to look at on the screen, but as seductive as she is both visually and vocally, Dejah Thoris (as a character) doesn’t do much beyond prototypical warrior-princess activity.  The past 10 years have seen women that play “the babe” in action films have a more action-oriented role to place them on par with their male leads.  However, it’s starting to get a little dull if all these women do is throw a few punches only to be waiting to be saved in the end.  Collins’ performance produced undeniable girl-power infused with a regal respectability, but unfortunately it ends there as her inability to generate sparks with John Carter highlights every romantic scene with the high-beams of awkwardness.

The male leads stand in stark contrast to Lynn Collins’ quality performance as captured by the camera.  Mark Strong (previously Sinestro, now Matai Shang) is John Carter’s big bad, and the man seems to be all too comfortable with playing the villain in just about every film he has been cast.  Far too little is revealed about his character to the audience to effectively break down his performance because I couldn’t tell you if acting like a monotone devil showing little (if any) emotion of any sort was the appropriate choice for that character.  That is exactly what Strong delivered and although he did a fine job doing so, I prefer my villains to be a lot more dynamic than that. 

This leads us to Taylor Kitsch (previously Gambit, now John Carter) who plays JC himself: a former soldier in the Confederate army, turn gold prospector, who has a way with Native Americans, a knack for combat and a penchant for getting into trouble.  Oh, and he seems to have a permanent case of male PMS.   As I mentioned before, the details of the plot are few and far between in explaining the “what’s”, “where’s” and “why’s,” but are even less when filtering the plot through John Carter’s eyes.  In fact, without dialogue in the script specifically telling the audience about Carter’s past, there’s nothing in Kitsch’s performance that shows he’s a southerner, a soldier, or a man of ANY former level of respectability.  Kitsch doesn’t speak with a southern accent, displays no form of period specific sword play technique when combating and shows no evidence of being former military by his demeanor or dialogue.  Kitsch’s John Carter comes off like some vagabond cowboy who is consistently pissed off, doesn’t care at all for authority and only has one thing on his mind: gold.  Of course, these are all explained away by the story about 20 minutes before the final credits roll, but better choices in performance could have reconciled such a lackluster rationale.  Kitsch does fine with his character’s physicality, but struggles with even simple dialogue.  I feel like I catch Kitsch thinking when he says his lines rather than simply being in character and speaking organically. 

Push comes to shove, people who know the John Carter mythos will appreciate this movie because they will understand everything they see and everything they hear.  I got about 50% of it while completely losing interest in the other half.  This is not an adaptation that seeks a solid, fictional foundation that any viewer can find relatable or intriguing, which is a shame because the world of John Carter is much more exotic than what this film portrays and it shows at the box office.

An Act of Valor is the Call of Duty

A Film Review of Act of Valor

By: Lawrence Napoli

[[wysiwyg_imageupload:786:]]If for some reason the title of this film review is somewhat confusing, let me be quite clear.  Act of Valor is the unofficial Call of Duty (Modern Warfare) film adaptation.  It takes all but five minutes into this film to realize this, but then I kind of got that impression by identifying the major demographic that populated the theater as I searched for my seat: males 13-18.  Which is exactly the kind of people the US military covets among all else because war films are just about as old as filmmaking, and to this day they serve agendas beyond shear entertainment; namely glorification and recruitment.  It’s not just the fact that this film has to do with contemporary warfare that has young men marching to the theaters.  I believe it’s because of this film’s strong visual connection with Call of Duty style videogames and the “game-ification” of the violence in war from said games that accounts for the attraction.  I seriously doubt that anyone in the audience not named Lawrence Napoli would have any interest in sitting through a war film like Patton (1970 – and one of the greatest films [war or otherwise] of all time).  In that regard, I almost disqualify Act of Valor as a “war film” because it does not contain a traditional narrative, doesn’t feature any unique characters and is quite disciplined in its action sequences not going “over the top.”  Act of Valor is a war simulation film in that it delivers a dramatic (yet fictional) slice of life of the exceptional American operators who are proficient at more than just doing calisthenics and chilling out on American bases.  These men exist to kill the enemy (accent on KILL), and American security and the rule of global law and order are better served because of their efforts.

I was quite satisfied with the action throughout this film, but the viewer better be okay with a healthy dose of the first person perspective.  If not, you may find this film a bit off-putting.  Every action sequence cuts to this camera angle on multiple occasions, but the editors mix in enough traditional dolly, crane and steady-cam shots to dissuade motion sickness.  No, this isn’t a modern warfare version of Paranormal Activity, but be prepared when the bullets start flying.  And speaking of those bullets, everything about the gunplay from the setup to the engagement and execution of the enemy on screen is the very definition of professionalism.  Of course, one would expect that of active duty Navy SEALs, but doing it in real life is different than doing it for entertainment.  Authenticity is this film’s number one strength and it really shines through not just in the action, but in the subtle yet effective performances of the SEALs themselves.  There’s no “Mother Goose” this (from Top Gun) or “saving Private Ryan” that in how the men address each other on and off mission.  Their dialogue comes off as casual and matter of fact despite the downtime between explosions and body counts.  Perhaps what is most amazing about these soldiers is despite their destructive force, they have an ability to “flip the switch off” for each other and their families.  Although this dichotomy is not explored fully (only hinted at towards the beginning of the film) it exists to show that these types of people are as real as the sacrifices some make on the ever changing and unforgiving battlefield.

An interesting fact about this film is that it is surprisingly removed from the typical big dollars of Hollywood studios which seem to go hand in hand with films that feature huge effects, big explosions, cool looking vehicles and well choreographed action.  The distributors for Act of Valor are an amalgam of companies from Canada, Turkey, Singapore, India, Thailand, Switzerland and yes, also the USA (thank you Relativity Media).  This is quite interesting seeing how this film is very American-centric as being identified as “the good guys,” and I wonder if every country of origin for those distributors maintains that sentiment within its respective populations.  Countries like the UK may be partners in the global anti-terrorist initiative, but seeing this film will not inspire the British to pump their chests and get fired up about contributing to the cause.  This film has that exact effect on Americans so I would challenge any up and coming investigative journalist to track the money that funded Act of Valor beyond the distributors because it is an effective piece of propaganda.  Let’s just say that I would not be surprised to find a Pentagon bank account at the end of that chain.  At the very least, the military brass must have given the SEALs permission to be movie stars for however long the production took.  It’s not like they could fit in a few hours of film shooting at their leisure after working their day jobs.   

Do you want to know another area where this film channels Call of Duty directly?  The general plot seems to have been a direct composite of every game’s story.  The bad guys in Call of Duty are one of or a combination of Nazis, Russians or terrorists.  Act of Valor doesn’t exactly throw me a curve by featuring a Makirov wanna-be who converts to extremist Islam and uses his Russian connections to proliferate his own personal brand of terror.  My boy Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw over at The Escapist and Zero Punctuation could easily copy/paste his comedic criticism of Modern Warfare 3 and have it apply to Act of Valor’s cookie-cutter story.  The rest of this non-linear tale fills out with standard issue “this is the plan to kill the bad guys,” “the killing of the bad guys,” rinsing and repeating save for one area of intrigue that does not get explained in the script.  The Russian/Muslim bad guy uses neither Russians nor Arabs as recruits for his agents of death and it raises a very significant point about the current state of the “war on terror.”  The entire Third World is a hotbed for terrorist recruitment, and that message hasn’t exactly been front page material in the American media as evidenced by most of its video coverage concerning terrorist activity being siphoned off of Al Jazeera’s network.  Had this film delved more into this issue, it certainly would have been much more intelligent in exposing the truth that the face of terror knows no ethnicity, creed or country of origin. 

As for the acting . . . well like I said earlier, it’s mostly authentic soldier type back and forth along with the prescribed level of military terminology, acronyms and jargon.  However, don’t expect any moving performances outside of “fragging out!” because you won’t find it.  Even the Hollywood performers that fill in the non-SEAL roles like Roselyn Sanchez (what the heck is she doing in this film?) can’t deliver much due to limitations of the story.  The SEALs are the true stars and their acting ability, though filled with effort, lacks.  The best scene in the entire movie is between the SEAL interrogator and Christo; equal parts amusing, frightening and dramatic.

Act of Valor is “the number one movie in America” the same way every action film manages to attain that title so don’t go see this movie because it happens to be trending right now.  I would, however, recommend this film to anyone that wants a glimpse of more authentic military activity, how the responsibilities of the US armed forces are distinctly global in nature and the numerous differences between “operators” and “grunts.”  The action is solid, the story is basic and a message of duty, sacrifice, brotherhood and determination holds it all together.  Hawks will love Act of Valor.  Doves will not.

The State of Hollywood

2012 Oscar Fallout

(Editor’s Note: CBN’s movie reviewer, Lawrence Napoli, offers his views and opinions on the movie biz in his column, “The State Of Hollywood.”)

The obligatory video intro that pokes fun of last year’s films with Billy Crystal had a pretty standard array of jokes, but Billy just seemed to make them work better than previous hosts of the past.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that he’s done this 8 times before this year?

Billy’s opening monologue/sing and dance number wasn’t as good as his video intro to the program.  My favorite of all time remains Hugh Jackman’s number.

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Best Cinematography – Hugo and Robert Richardson.

Best Art Direction – Hugo and Dante Ferreti   

Best Costume Design – The Artist and Mark Bridges (from Niagara Falls!  Go Western New York!)

Best Makeup – The Iron Lady and Mark Coulier

Best Foreign Language Film – A Separation (Iran)

Best Supporting Actress – The Help and Octavia Spencer w/ Christian Bale (The Dark Knight Rises) as Presenter

The first test screen audience spoof starring the cast of Best in Show was kind of funny, but only if you’re into that dry American humor. 

Best Film Editing – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

Best Sound Editing – Hugo and Philip Stockton  

Best Sound Mixing – Hugo and Tom Flieschman

Cirque Du Soleil’s performance – It was pretty neat how they began swinging out into the audience, not so cool how one of them fell down pretty early on in the number, but certainly showcased the awesome art of acrobatics and gymnastics better than most professionals.  I didn’t exactly get how their “dance” was meant to be a homage to “going to the movies,” but whatever.

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Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow’s presentation of best documentary was hilarious in that it was 100% Tony Stark ego meeting Pepper Potts’ need to maintain control which made a relatively dull category, a tad more interesting.

Best documentary feature – Undefeated and TJ Martin and co.  A little frat boy nonsensical cursing that was muted out, and the specter of Damon and Afleck still cannot escape the Oscars.

Chris Rock loves animation?  He has a nice way of showing it by mocking the fact he gets paid “a million dollars” for doing voice-overs when the fact of the matter that is that most VO actors struggle to make a living (just not Nolan North).  Just because some no-name casting director thought Chris Rock’s geeky, squeaky voice would be perfect for a cartoon doesn’t necessarily meant he had any genuine artistic contribution to any film he simply read lines for.  I get he was trying to make a joke, but he came off like an ignorant knucklehead. 

Best animated feature – Rango and Gore Verbinski

Ben Stiller and Emma Stone = great, comedic co-presentation.  Ben still tries to evoke comedy out of playing the straight man and allows his partner to generate all the laughs.  Emma Stone continues to solidify herself as one of my favorite women in all of Hollywood.

Best visual effects – Hugo and Rob Legato

Best supporting actor – Beginners, and Christopher Plummer wins his FIRST OSCAR!!!  Way to go Chris!  What a great thank you speech and it’s about time you got recognition for a hall of fame acting career while avoiding the undesirable “lifetime achievement” Oscar. 

Billy Crystal’s “I know what everyone is thinking” was pretty funny:

1) Brad Pitt – “This show better not go too late, I’ve got 6 parent-teacher conferences in the morning.”

2) Morgan Freeman – Random quotes from March of the Penguins mixed with The Shawshank Redemption

3) The dog from The Artist – “If I had ‘em, I’d like ‘em.”

4) Nick Nolte – “Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh.”

They paired Penelope Cruz with the one person in the world who has an uglier nose than her: Owen Wilson!  Naturally, they present a best music Oscar.

Best original score – The Artist and Ludvic Bourge

Will Ferrell and Zach Galafianakis come marching up from the orchestra pit smashing cymbals and wearing all white tuxedos.  The funniest part was Galafianakis mispronouncing his own last name as they both introduced themselves to the audience.

Best original song – Man or Muppet and Brett Mckenzie

Angelina Jolie gives a sexy pose, sticks her leg out from that hot black dress, says “good evening” and the audience responds, but upon closer inspection of Jolie herself, her arms look severely anorexic and I can’t imagine the lack of meat she is hiding beneath the dress.  They say the camera adds 20 pounds?  In her case it subtracted 20 off a frame that had no more than 110 originally.

Best adapted screenplay – The Descendants, and Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon trying to do their best Angelina Jolie impersonation.

Best original screenplay – Midnight in Paris, and Woody Allen was a no show to pick up his Oscar, but he probably gives two sh*ts about the Academy.

The cast of Bridesmaids presents the next 3 awards in character.  It was funnier than Ferrell and Galafianakis, but not by much.

Best live action short – The Shore and Terry George

Best documentary feature – Saving Face and Daniel Junge

Best animated short film – The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and William Joyce and Branden Oldenburg

Michael Douglas presents:

Best Director – The Artist’s Michel Hazanavicius

Meryl Streep presents the board of governor Oscars to:

Dick Smith (makeup), James Earl Jones, Oprah Winfrey

In memoriam sequence to What a Wonderful World – Clearly, the most difficult part of the evening, and the Academy did the right thing by giving the nod to Whitney Houston.  BUT, what I don’t understand is acknowledging Steve Jobs.  What Hollywood production was he ever associated with?  Aside from making filthy amounts of money on computing and bringing Final Cut Pro to regular consumers (which is significant) I don’t see how he belongs on the Academy’s radar.  Brilliant human being?  No question there, but it’s like the Academy honoring the passing of some amazing scientist, humanitarian, politician, or (insert profession outside of Hollywood here) and I think this move was purely political.

Natalie Portman presents:

Best Actor – The Artist’s Jean Dujardin.  Side note: this reminded me of Roberto Benigni winning for Life Is Beautiful (1997), and it took a film that was so unconventional that it literally came out of nowhere to take the Oscars by storm.  Only time will tell Jean, like Roberto before him, never returns to the Oscar stage again.

Colin Firth presents:

Best Actress – The Iron Lady’s Meryl Streep.  17 Nominations and this being only her 3^rd victory seems a little strange.  She really is the best film actress of America for the past 40 years and no one else comes close to the quality and diversity of her body of work. 

Tom Cruise presents:

Best Picture: The Artist is perhaps the most anti-climactic end to an Academy Awards because everyone and their mother knew this was going to happen.  And why not?  It’s all we’ve been hearing about for the past month or so, and although I have no issue with this picture winning over the rest, there is something worth mentioning.  The Academy has shown a propensity for giving props to retro productions.  The most recent was a return to musicals that began with Moulin Rouge! (2001), and although that film did not win best picture that year (because it was especially strange) it certainly opened the door wide open for Chicago to do so the very next year.  The brilliance of a silent film is not the same stuff of a brilliant “talkie,” so in a way, it isn’t exactly fair to be judging all nine of these films in the same category.  Sound in the filmmaking process has become almost as important as producing the images that make the moving picture, and for a film like this to win tosses theoretical mud in the faces of those who won for best sound editing and mixing.  Regardless, I am certain this film was deserving of victory and I intend to see The Artist at my earliest convenience.  You’ll only hear again from me on this matter if what I encounter is a film that was severely hyped and what it actually delivered was a cornucopia of over indulgence.

Final thoughts:

All in all, the 84^th Academy Awards went off without a hitch, and you can attribute this to the veteran leadership of one Billy Crystal.  He may not have much left in the tank to sell films by himself, but the man knows how to host the Oscars.  In this man’s humble opinion there is Bob Hope, Billy Crystal and no one else that have done this job with class, comedy and calm.  Crystal was quick with the one-liners and in tandem with some fairly entertaining presenters, the overall pace of the show never lagged.  The only other highlight of the evening was how Sash Sacha Baron Cohen (as The Dictator) dumped fake Kim Jong Il ashes all over Ryan Seacrest, and I’m sure that ruined his tux enough to force him into an unexpected costume change.  Anything that knocks out that prissy punk Seacrest gets a thumbs up in my book.  Well done Borat, well done.  Hugo took home the largest number of Oscars, but The Artist was the best. 

The State of Hollywood

2012 Oscar Fallout

(Editor’s Note: CBN’s movie reviewer, Lawrence Napoli, offers his views and opinions on the movie biz in his column, “The State Of Hollywood.”)

The obligatory video intro that pokes fun of last year’s films with Billy Crystal had a pretty standard array of jokes, but Billy just seemed to make them work better than previous hosts of the past.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that he’s done this 8 times before this year?

Billy’s opening monologue/sing and dance number wasn’t as good as his video intro to the program.  My favorite of all time remains Hugh Jackman’s number.

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Best Cinematography – Hugo and Robert Richardson.

Best Art Direction – Hugo and Dante Ferreti   

Best Costume Design – The Artist and Mark Bridges (from Niagara Falls!  Go Western New York!)

Best Makeup – The Iron Lady and Mark Coulier

Best Foreign Language Film – A Separation (Iran)

Best Supporting Actress – The Help and Octavia Spencer w/ Christian Bale (The Dark Knight Rises) as Presenter

The first test screen audience spoof starring the cast of Best in Show was kind of funny, but only if you’re into that dry American humor. 

Best Film Editing – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

Best Sound Editing – Hugo and Philip Stockton  

Best Sound Mixing – Hugo and Tom Flieschman

Cirque Du Soleil’s performance – It was pretty neat how they began swinging out into the audience, not so cool how one of them fell down pretty early on in the number, but certainly showcased the awesome art of acrobatics and gymnastics better than most professionals.  I didn’t exactly get how their “dance” was meant to be a homage to “going to the movies,” but whatever.

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Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow’s presentation of best documentary was hilarious in that it was 100% Tony Stark ego meeting Pepper Potts’ need to maintain control which made a relatively dull category, a tad more interesting.

Best documentary feature – Undefeated and TJ Martin and co.  A little frat boy nonsensical cursing that was muted out, and the specter of Damon and Afleck still cannot escape the Oscars.

Chris Rock loves animation?  He has a nice way of showing it by mocking the fact he gets paid “a million dollars” for doing voice-overs when the fact of the matter that is that most VO actors struggle to make a living (just not Nolan North).  Just because some no-name casting director thought Chris Rock’s geeky, squeaky voice would be perfect for a cartoon doesn’t necessarily meant he had any genuine artistic contribution to any film he simply read lines for.  I get he was trying to make a joke, but he came off like an ignorant knucklehead. 

Best animated feature – Rango and Gore Verbinski

Ben Stiller and Emma Stone = great, comedic co-presentation.  Ben still tries to evoke comedy out of playing the straight man and allows his partner to generate all the laughs.  Emma Stone continues to solidify herself as one of my favorite women in all of Hollywood.

Best visual effects – Hugo and Rob Legato

Best supporting actor – Beginners, and Christopher Plummer wins his FIRST OSCAR!!!  Way to go Chris!  What a great thank you speech and it’s about time you got recognition for a hall of fame acting career while avoiding the undesirable “lifetime achievement” Oscar. 

Billy Crystal’s “I know what everyone is thinking” was pretty funny:

1) Brad Pitt – “This show better not go too late, I’ve got 6 parent-teacher conferences in the morning.”

2) Morgan Freeman – Random quotes from March of the Penguins mixed with The Shawshank Redemption

3) The dog from The Artist – “If I had ‘em, I’d like ‘em.”

4) Nick Nolte – “Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh.”

They paired Penelope Cruz with the one person in the world who has an uglier nose than her: Owen Wilson!  Naturally, they present a best music Oscar.

Best original score – The Artist and Ludvic Bourge

Will Ferrell and Zach Galafianakis come marching up from the orchestra pit smashing cymbals and wearing all white tuxedos.  The funniest part was Galafianakis mispronouncing his own last name as they both introduced themselves to the audience.

Best original song – Man or Muppet and Brett Mckenzie

Angelina Jolie gives a sexy pose, sticks her leg out from that hot black dress, says “good evening” and the audience responds, but upon closer inspection of Jolie herself, her arms look severely anorexic and I can’t imagine the lack of meat she is hiding beneath the dress.  They say the camera adds 20 pounds?  In her case it subtracted 20 off a frame that had no more than 110 originally.

Best adapted screenplay – The Descendants, and Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon trying to do their best Angelina Jolie impersonation.

Best original screenplay – Midnight in Paris, and Woody Allen was a no show to pick up his Oscar, but he probably gives two sh*ts about the Academy.

The cast of Bridesmaids presents the next 3 awards in character.  It was funnier than Ferrell and Galafianakis, but not by much.

Best live action short – The Shore and Terry George

Best documentary feature – Saving Face and Daniel Junge

Best animated short film – The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and William Joyce and Branden Oldenburg

Michael Douglas presents:

Best Director – The Artist’s Michel Hazanavicius

Meryl Streep presents the board of governor Oscars to:

Dick Smith (makeup), James Earl Jones, Oprah Winfrey

In memoriam sequence to What a Wonderful World – Clearly, the most difficult part of the evening, and the Academy did the right thing by giving the nod to Whitney Houston.  BUT, what I don’t understand is acknowledging Steve Jobs.  What Hollywood production was he ever associated with?  Aside from making filthy amounts of money on computing and bringing Final Cut Pro to regular consumers (which is significant) I don’t see how he belongs on the Academy’s radar.  Brilliant human being?  No question there, but it’s like the Academy honoring the passing of some amazing scientist, humanitarian, politician, or (insert profession outside of Hollywood here) and I think this move was purely political.

Natalie Portman presents:

Best Actor – The Artist’s Jean Dujardin.  Side note: this reminded me of Roberto Benigni winning for Life Is Beautiful (1997), and it took a film that was so unconventional that it literally came out of nowhere to take the Oscars by storm.  Only time will tell Jean, like Roberto before him, never returns to the Oscar stage again.

Colin Firth presents:

Best Actress – The Iron Lady’s Meryl Streep.  17 Nominations and this being only her 3^rd victory seems a little strange.  She really is the best film actress of America for the past 40 years and no one else comes close to the quality and diversity of her body of work. 

Tom Cruise presents:

Best Picture: The Artist is perhaps the most anti-climactic end to an Academy Awards because everyone and their mother knew this was going to happen.  And why not?  It’s all we’ve been hearing about for the past month or so, and although I have no issue with this picture winning over the rest, there is something worth mentioning.  The Academy has shown a propensity for giving props to retro productions.  The most recent was a return to musicals that began with Moulin Rouge! (2001), and although that film did not win best picture that year (because it was especially strange) it certainly opened the door wide open for Chicago to do so the very next year.  The brilliance of a silent film is not the same stuff of a brilliant “talkie,” so in a way, it isn’t exactly fair to be judging all nine of these films in the same category.  Sound in the filmmaking process has become almost as important as producing the images that make the moving picture, and for a film like this to win tosses theoretical mud in the faces of those who won for best sound editing and mixing.  Regardless, I am certain this film was deserving of victory and I intend to see The Artist at my earliest convenience.  You’ll only hear again from me on this matter if what I encounter is a film that was severely hyped and what it actually delivered was a cornucopia of over indulgence.

Final thoughts:

All in all, the 84^th Academy Awards went off without a hitch, and you can attribute this to the veteran leadership of one Billy Crystal.  He may not have much left in the tank to sell films by himself, but the man knows how to host the Oscars.  In this man’s humble opinion there is Bob Hope, Billy Crystal and no one else that have done this job with class, comedy and calm.  Crystal was quick with the one-liners and in tandem with some fairly entertaining presenters, the overall pace of the show never lagged.  The only other highlight of the evening was how Sash Sacha Baron Cohen (as The Dictator) dumped fake Kim Jong Il ashes all over Ryan Seacrest, and I’m sure that ruined his tux enough to force him into an unexpected costume change.  Anything that knocks out that prissy punk Seacrest gets a thumbs up in my book.  Well done Borat, well done.  Hugo took home the largest number of Oscars, but The Artist was the best. 

Shepard Commander: Alert!

These Are My Impressions of the Mass Effect 3 Demo

[[wysiwyg_imageupload:750:]]I’ve had just about a week with BioWare’s first taste of the overall goodness that is the Mass Effect 3 demo and after even this short period of time, I must say that I am hooked.  I was modestly amused with the single player demo in that I was able to detect the noticeable difference in the combat flow, an improved AI and the new character animations Shepard engages in beyond running to waist high cover and throwing single elbows for melee strikes.  Then came the multiplayer component that released on February 17^th and the fun factor went up a hundred fold.  When this concept was first presented by BioWare it was met with a wide array of skepticism, disinterest and in some instances, outright rage for what was perceived by fans and critics as the company cow-towing to formulaic game development.  Mass Effect is and always shall be an enveloping, dramatic, and action-driven role playing adventure that feels like you are controlling the characters of a cinematic, sci-fi saga.  “It doesn’t need multiplayer!” said the antagonists.  “Why must every game try to be like CoD just to make crazy profit?” queried the doubters.  “How much will this take away from the single player campaign?” asked the fans.  Although we don’t know how well the final product will ultimately play, this demo delivers a good amount of answers to the naysayers while simultaneously raising new concerns in even the most devoted fan boys such as myself. 

“The Good” about single player:

1) I played through the two chapters with every class using both male and female Shepards and they each played differently enough to necessitate different strategies in surviving and advancing.

2) The dialogue/discussion sequences look better than ever so long as BioWare keeps the “I should go’s” and excessive “Shepard” references to a minimum.  I expect a much greater degree of drama during these sections as the entire universe is under siege, but I wonder how well the tension can be eased when I presume moments of levity will be very scarce.

3) The combat plays like Mass Effect 2, but it is much faster, or rather, it can be much faster.  The amount of damage your Shepard-build can absorb will determine how direct you can be in firefights.  Rushing into and out of cover is a vast improvement and the addition of combat rolling in all four directions adds a welcome and dynamic means of averting disaster on the battlefield.

4) The game just looks so beautiful.  Every area of detail from environments to enemies to weapon effects and cut scenes has been upgraded.  The lighting effects from both “natural” and “unnatural” sources are particularly satisfying.

5) The AI has sharper teeth!  I’m not just talking about the inclusion of heavier ordinance such as the Atlas mechs.  It’s the support units that will give you headaches.  Enemy troopers will drop smoke bombs obscuring vision and disallowing biotic “lock-on” attacks, while others setup portable turrets at key choke points – while still others try to flank you and your party.  The fact that the AI is no longer stupid has me concerned for my “insane” difficulty play through.

“The Bad” about single player:

1) Shepard still rotates on his x-axis with the proficiency of a tank.  With the increased emphasis on close-quarter-combat, the ability to turn slightly (but swiftly) to face up the opposition has never been more necessary.  Too bad the player still can’t do this.  It gives me nightmarish flashbacks to the frustrating lateral movement of Resident Evil 5.

2) I’m not sold on grenades.  For the classes that have “grenade” abilities, they require skill points to unlock and upgrade just like any other biotic/tech/combat skills.  The problem is you need to find ammo dumps or enemy drops to replenish your supply.  Explosives can be very useful for crowd control situations, but I can’t help but think that maxing out self-renewing skills would be more reliable.

3) Shepard’s squad is still dumb.  One would think if the enemy AI got an infusion of grey matter that the player’s squad mates would at least get a taste, right?  Wrong.  I still had to direct Garrus and Liara to focus on the biggest threats on the field AND force them to use their very useful abilities to do so effectively.  I understand there’s a reason they call him/her “Commander” Shepard, but his team ought to be experienced enough to use proximity mines on groups of enemies without being ordered to do so.

4) Sticking to cover sometimes leads to sticky situations.  Going into cover all but triggers the enemy AI to advance and flank quickly, but getting out of cover to counter a flanking move is not nearly as responsive.  If perhaps movement was dictated strictly by the left analog stick independently from the camera angle (like Uncharted’s 1, 2 and 3) this wouldn’t be a problem at all.

5) Choice of combat class is a player-controlled handicap system.  When you account for a more dangerous AI and unreliable teammates, how the player dominates the field as Shepard is the name of the game.  Although some new skills have been added to every class they aren’t enough to make every class as viable as they were in ME2.  The three most important combat abilities in Mass Effect 3 are distraction, evasion and protection; thus the ranking of each class from weakest to strongest is as follows: Vanguard, Adept, Soldier, Engineer, Infiltrator, and Sentinel. 

“The Good” about multiplayer:

1) The ability to play as non-humans is an absolute thrill!  Having Drell, Asari, Turians, Quarians, Krogans, and Salarians in your party for past Mass Effect games does not compare to actually being a Drell, Asari, Turian, Quarian, Krogan or Salarian.  Each species have different pools of skills to dump points into as well as having unique movement/melee animations that will more than likely have veteran players avoiding human characters like the plague.

2) The co-op “survival” mode is challenging and unpredictable.  Players that are used to ME2 controls will have no problems picking up on all the subtle differences of every species, but regardless of individual skill, teamwork is the only thing that will see a safe extraction even on the lowest difficulty and the reward for clearing stages is a massive experience and credit bonus.  With experience bonuses given to every action like revivals, headshots, biotic kills, etc., this game rewards the player for contributing to the team.  Although kills can still be “stolen” by teammates, a point system is in place to give a proportional reward to each player depending on how much damage was dealt before the final blow.  It is quite refreshing to finally encounter a multiplayer mode that encourages non-douche-bag game play.

3) The baseball card pack unlocking system is surprisingly satisfying.  I mentioned that the player earns credits in addition to experience for clearing stages.  Experience allows the character’s abilities to grow in strength and versatility, but items must be purchased, but not in the manner in which gamers have become accustomed.  The player purchases starter, recruit and veteran “packs” with their credits which contain a random selection of items like new weapons, weapon modifications, ammo/armor boosts, health/revival packs and new characters to play as.  Some players may dislike the fact that luck plays a large role in them getting what they want, but they can take solace in two facts: 1- useless duplicates are fairly rare and 2- you have as good a chance at getting something awesome on your first pack as your 20^th provided you always purchase veteran packs at 20K a piece.

4)  Experience that is earned within each combat class does not need to be re-earned to build new character unlocks within the same category.  On our preview podcast for Mass Effect 3, our associate Kevin brought up a valid concern for multiplayer being that the level cap is only 20 and therefore putting a glaring limitation on the player’s motivation to keep on playing.  My counter to that statement was that there were 6 classes, times 20 levels of advancement, times 4 species per class to build which yields 480 levels to be gained.  That is a very daunting number to achieve and thankfully not necessary.  When you get to level 20 in the soldier class as a human (only humans are available at the start) and you unlock the much coveted Krogan soldier, you do not begin from scratch if you want to use that character.  You do get all the experience points a level 20 would have to distribute as you see fit which is an excellent benefit seeing how max level non-humans are vital in completing the higher difficulties of multiplayer.

5) Modification and specialization is a huge strength.  Character uniforms will be able to alter colors, highlights and patterns to make every player’s team of specialists look unique.  Every gun has 2 modification slots to give the player enhanced stability, damage output, increased rate of fire and larger clip sizes.  Regardless of class, any character can bring any 2 guns into combat they have unlocked thus far (although I recommend picking 1 as your favorite in order to enjoy an increased power recharge bonus). 

“The Bad” about multiplayer:

1) Match making is broken and needs to be fixed ASAP!  If the player has three other friends to make a full squad with, you’ll have no problems making private matches and knocking out multiple rounds of play quickly.  Selecting “quick match” as a solo player is laughable in terms of “quickness.”  The majority of the time had me jumping into a lobby with only one other player and it would take forever to fill in the other 2 public slots – if at all.  Players can jump in and out of matches at will, but host migration is a wretched collection of load screens which can result in outright disconnection.  The amount of real time wasted in waiting for proper matches to be formed can become very frustrating.

2)   Connectivity of every player to multiplayer matches seems temperamental at best.  Another common sight in the matchmaking lobby is every player selecting the “ready” button with the exception of one.  At first I thought this was simply the result of some tool that is AFK or fooling around with his or her load-out for an unreasonable amount of time.  As this became a common theme I began to believe that it was the result of shoddy connections.  The game will randomly kick the player out of active games at a rate that is not problematic save for this fact: any progress the player has made is instantly nullified as the only way to save progress is by going all the way or having your whole party get wiped out within proper game menus. 

3) The X button is far too glitchy.  On the PS3, the X button is the all encompassing environment interaction key that is necessary to depress in order to go into and out of cover, revive teammates, execute combat rolls and engage/disarm devices that need to be hacked within the match.  Getting the X button to do what you actually want in crowds of enemies is terrible.  Reviving a teammate that is right next to waist-high cover is almost impossible.  Hacking devices that are next to walls requires spamming X because the game didn’t register the first 10 times you pressed it.  This shouldn’t be a problem for PC gamers by remapping actions to different keys, but counsel controllers have severe button limitations.

4) End game multiplayer motivation seems lacking.  It’s true that earning a combined 120 levels divided by 6 combat classes will take a healthy amount of time to accomplish.  Skilled players will have no problems doing this in casual plays sessions in less than 2 weeks.  The reward for multiplayer is advancement.  The reward for advancement is building a strong squad of specialists for Shepard to deploy in some manner during the single player campaign.  Where does that leave the player after that?  The answer lies in clearing stages at higher difficulty levels.  Silver challenges require 4 squad mates at level 10 at least to have a reasonable chance to win and gold challenges require everyone at max level, complimentary classes and players on top of their individual games to have a snowball’s chance in hell.  As of now, there doesn’t appear to be a point to subjecting yourself to that brutality other than pride and without a trophy or achievement to showcase the accomplishment, I don’t see many players being interested in participating at those higher difficulties.

5) Nobody seems interested in using headsets for this multiplayer mode.  Especially on higher difficulties, communication is vital in clearing these maps as there is no “radar” to exploit and unless the squad battles like a tight-knit Spartan phalanx, knowing precisely where downed teammates are located is pretty important info.  The two maps available for this demo are not particularly large so keeping tabs on your squad mates is less of an issue, but if maps get larger, players need to take advantage of this free communication option.  Also, if someone on your team is annoying, an option for muting them NEEDS to be included.  It exists in virtually every other multiplayer game.

So that’s the bottom line on the Mass Effect 3 demo.  Unfortunately, none of the progress that is achieved in the multiplayer portion will carry over to the full game, but that’s no reason to ignore this very fun demo.  It gives the player a risk free opportunity to experiment with class development within a virtual environment that is far less forgiving than previous installments.  The potential for EA and BioWare to reap massive profit on this piece of fictional entertainment has all been laid in the groundwork of ever intriguing replay options.  Although no demo is flawless, hopefully BioWare can make some patch alterations to iron out the minor yet noticeable wrinkles in an otherwise silky smooth video game experience.