TV & Movies
Discussion and reviews of TV & Movies!
Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog
Jun 9th
Have you seen Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog yet? If not, you really should. It’s actually been around for quite a while now, but I had to show it to a friend that hadn’t seen it before and now its stuck in my head all over again. I’ve watched it twice in the last week, that’s how good it is. You can watch all three acts in one show on Netflix’s instant queue in HD, so if you haven’t seen it, or have watched it on YouTube, I really recommend you do yourself a favor and watch it from Netflix’s site. If you don’t have Netflix (why don’t you) you can watch it on YouTube. It is a great show and really highlights just how great Joss Whedon is. As a matter of fact, I liked it so much, I even bought the soundtrack. Its a lot of catchy little songs that I enjoy listening too, mainly because they make me think about that scene in the show. Let me know what you think!
Review: 5 out of 5 Bears!
Risus Character Compendium – Richard Castle
Apr 21st
I’ve often used other sites character’s when I need some good NPC’s at times, instead of making up my own. Plus, I often like to see the characters that other people come up with. Since I like character compendium’s so much, I thought I would continue to add to my own using either actual NPC’s that I have or famous characters or people.
With that, I give you the Risus version of Richard Castle from ABC’s series Castle:
Richard Castle
Clichés
Wealthy, Best-Selling Mystery Writer (4)
Ruggedly Handsome and Eccentric Aristocrat (4)
Honorary NYPD Detective (2)
Backstory
Richard Castle is a well-connected and wealthy best-selling mystery novelist. He has friends in high places in New York and through these friends are able to ghost with an NYPD Detective Kate Beckett in order to do research for his new mystery novels. He actually ends up being useful during investigations due to his inquisitive mind and being able to see how things might fit together in a unique way that the others do not.
Let me know what you think!
The Gamers: Dorkness Rising Review
Feb 2nd
I have unfortunately been sick the past two days, and because of that, I have had a chance to go through my Netflix instant queue, watching a lot of stuff I normally don’t have time to sit down and watch. One of the movies I decided to try was The Gamers: Dorkness Rising.
Right from the beginning, you can tell it is a low budget film. That isn’t a bad thing for me, but if you are expecting state of the art spell effects, you’re not going to find them in this movie. It starts out in the actual game world they are playing in, showing the party as it moves through the dungeon and eventually, gets TPKed (Total Party Killed). They are playing D&D in the movie, so if you have experience playing D&D, you will really enjoy the references.
The movie is full of gamer jokes, making fun of classes and stats, and all the things that can normally happen around a table. It is full of humor and yet manages to stay away from most of the raunchy stuff. Everything happens as you expect it would while playing a tabletop rpg. They stay very true to the subject, and it really drew me in.
The characters in the movie are fun and about what you would expect if you played a pick-up game at a game store. How concerned the players were with experience, gold, and seducing the bar maid really made me laugh out loud at some of my own memories of people that I have played with. For just the laughs and memories, the movie is definitely worth watching.
Halfway through the movie, I realized my wife was also watching and laughing too, though she is not really a tabletop gamer. If she enjoyed it, I know most tabletop players will like the movie. Heck, if you have Netflix, just stick it in your instant queue and it won’t cost you anything but the time to sit down and watch it.
Four out of five Bears!
Human Target
Jan 30th
Human Target is a new TV show on FOX that I just had the chance to watch today. I had DVR’d the first three episodes, so throughout the day I was able to watch them. I have to say, I really enjoyed them. The show is full of action and mayhem which is sure to please most of the short attention spans that watch TV today.
Human Target is about a man that lives off the radar and hires out as a unique body guard. He has a team of two others that help him from head quarters and occasionally out in the field. He is very much all business and seems to be able to do anything while fearing nothing. The interesting part is that he like to be paid in items, not money, so that he can continue to live off the radar. I am very interested to see where they continue to go with this theme. They hint at the fact that he might not have always been a good guy. It seems like they are going to keep his name and past as a running mystery through out the show.
Human Target has many things going for it. First, the acting is very well done and so far, the guest actors have all been known from they great work in other TV shows (Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Smallville). The characters are well written and the action is fun and clever. Second, like most TV shows today, it has a mystery going on from the very beginning, who is Christopher Chase? I like a show that keeps me wondering, it draws me into the characters and their stories. Finally, it has the larger than life action hero. Christopher Chase is the type of hero you would want on the case if you had a price on your head. He seems to be able to do anything and rarely makes a mistake. However, I did like the third episode where they showed a little more of the human side of him and how even he is not immortal.
Now that I have all the good stuff out of the way, they do go a little over the top with some of the action. That can be a good thing, but there are a lot of people that do not like physics defying stunts that no one could truly pull off. Other than that, I encourage you to watch the show, try to start at the beginning though if you can, but each episode has seemed to stand alone so far. Just remember, you may have to suspend your disbelief at time to fully enjoy the show!
Four out of Five Bears! It will hold a valued place on my DVR for the near future.
Inkheart – Movie Review
Jul 19th
Inkheart
I just watched the movie Inkheart today and thought it was a great movie. I went looking online for more about it and was disappointed to see pretty low reviews of the movie, so I decided to review it myself.
Inkheart the movie is based off of a book with the same name by Cornelia Funke. I have not read the book yet but intend to now since the movie was so good. Maybe I’ll review that too when I finally get around to it.
The movie is of a genre that I like to call fairy-tale. This is the same genre that wonderful movies like The Princess Bride and Stardust belong in. (If you have never heard of either of those movies, then you must queue them up in Netflix or run to a rental store immediately! I’m serious, why are you still reading this!) These movies are wonderful escapes from reality that the whole family can enjoy, and as a father of two, that is very important to me.
Inkheart is full of action and adventure that amazingly is able to remain clean. This movie contains a love story, fighting, monsters, treasure, and the journey home. It also is based on one of my favorite hobbies, the wonderful world of books.
Characters of books actually come to life in Inkheart thanks to the main character. I will remain vague so that I don’t give away any details. Let’s just say that there are villians, people that need to be rescued, and wonderfully flawed main characters. The characters range from the believable to the magically, but all of them are fairly well developed. I was able to connect with the characters very well thanks to the developement.
The plot of the movie was wonderful and kept me on the edge of my seat. It also ended in a pretty feel good way so that the whole family was satisfied. Also, as a side note, I did love the actors in the movie. Brendan Fraiser, Sienna Guillory, and Paul Bettany did a wonderful job in this movie.
I give Inkheart the movie 5 out of 5 bears and I encourage you all to watch it when you get a chance. Fortunately it is already out on DVD and Bluray, so you can just rent it. The reason that I gave it 5 out of 5 bears because I consider the movie an “own worthy” movie, which means I am going to buy it.
