Reviews

I was pretty excited to learn that CreatorVC, the people behind the In Search of Darkness series, were going to a documentary on First-Person Shooter games. I've been a fan of the genre all the way back when Wolfenstein 3D and Blake Stone were released.

Clocking little over 4 hours & 30 minutes, the documentary starts off great. Covering the origins such as Maze War, Battlezone, and Catacombs 3D, before getting to Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. The coverage for id Software games were insightful and a lot of fun to hear stories from legends like John Carmack and John Romero. A lot of people from id Software were interviewed as well as folks from Apogee and 3D Realms.

Once the documentary gets to the era of Quake 2 and Unreal, it kinda of loses focus. The documentary seems to rush and trying to cover everything up to 2016's Doom. In doing so, they miss other important FPS games like Soldier of Fortune, Red Faction, the Far Cry series, Crysis, and the list goes on. The documentary skims through Call of Duty and Battlefield 1942. Medal of Honor Allied Assault gets the spotlight and totally forgets about the first Medal of Honor game. Goldeneye for the N64 gets attention, while Perfect Dark is mentioned but not well covered as Goldeneye.

Both Half-Life and Half-Life 2 gets solid coverage, as well as Team Fortress Classic and Team Fortress 2. Portal is mentioned as well but no one behind the game were interviewed. In fact, only the creators of Team Fortress were interviewed. No one else from Valve Software, past or present, are in this documentary. Randy Pitchford is the only person from Gearbox Software to be interviewed for the Half-Life add-on Opposing Force (as well as other Gearbox-related games such as Borderlands)

Mods were mentioned for Doom/Doom 2 but skimped on when we get to the Quake 2 and Half-Life era. Both origins for Team Fortress and Counter-Strike were either barely mentioned or not mentioned at all.

Like I said, this documentary tries to cover everything but misses the, big and small, important stuff. The creators of this documentary should've stick to the timeline and maybe stopped at Half-Life, saving the other games for another documentary. If they put the same amount of time, energy & money from the first half onto the last half of the documentary, I would've given it a 10 out of 10.

If you're a fan of id Software's games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, you're in for a treat. Even the coverage for Duke Nukem 3D and Unreal were fantastic. After that, the documentary loses focus and rushes through the titles, missing other important games in the process.

I give it a 6 out of 10.

Before this special, there was "Titanic 20 Years Later with James Cameron" That special showed how the Titanic wreckage was found back in the 1980s, talked to some of the survivors' offsprings, how the Titanic most likely sank vs what the movie showed, and other interesting theories/facts. Mostly showing you what the movie got right and what it got wrong. It's a great TV special or mini documentary, going in-depth with how the Titanic may have sank and if having the right amount of lifeboats would've made any difference.

With that said, the "Titanic 25 Years Later with James Cameron" shows most of that in the first half of this TV special or mini documentary, sans the survivors' offsprings. The new content is at the last half of the special. It's James Cameron with a team of experts trying to myth bust the "Jack & Rose on the same debris" theory. It's well done, going in-depth and covering a lot of things such as hypothermia, reenacting events that took place in the movie, and how both of them could've survived.

Personally, it's better to watch the entire "Titanic 20 Years Later with James Cameron" special and then watch the last half of "Titanic 25 Years Later with James Cameron" to get the best of both worlds.

One side of me wished they created a whole new special (which may have turned out to be a 18 minute one) and the other side appreciates them adding the bits from the last special onto this for those who may have missed it.

I've always wonder what ever happened to the late John Hughes. To my mind, he was a brilliant writer. His movies captured something that other movies, recent or in the past, haven't. The question always haunted me, where is he and why isn't he doing anymore films?

This documentary takes four producers/filmmakers/friends on a road trip to the homeland of Mr. Hughes, Chicago Illinois. It acts as a tribute, a road trip documentary and an insight to the man of THE teen movies. The filmmakers takes the road with cuts of cast & crew members from past John Hughes films being interviewed. Not exactly interviewed. It's more like hearing their theories where he could be, why he left, how he wrote characters that everyone can relate to and their message to the legendary writer/director.

There's other people being interviewed as well like the producers from Napoleon Dynamite, Kevin Smith of Clerks & Dogma, producer & director of Not Another Teen Movie and Jason Reitman of Juno. And then there's today's teens and everyday kid on the street on what they think of John Hughes movies compared to today's teen films.

After seeing this documentary through the series of theories from cast members, quotes from John Hughes and clips from his movies, you get a sense why he left. The folks who produced this documentary handled it really well but I wish more interviews were done with other past cast members. Please note this documentary and its content were filmed before his unfortunate passing in mid-2009. The documentary is in its entirely, unaltered with the exception of a note of Mr. Hughes being passed away at the end.

Definitely a must see for the John Hughes fan who, like me, wondered where he was and why he suddenly disappeared.

"I miss you very much. I'm tired of talking to you in my mind, I would like to talk to you in person" ~ Judd Nelson

This is my first music DVD. By that, I mean a DVD or video containing artist's music videos. At the start, I thought it was a waste of money to spend on a DVD just for a bunch of music videos I've already seen.

But I bought "Singles 93-03" and I'm extremely happy. The reason? Star Guitar has got to be one of the best music videos I've ever seen. It was well organized and edited. On top of that, Michel Gondry(director of Star Guitar video) filmed his "blueprint" of the video. Quite interesting.

Other music videos that's worth mentioning are Let Forever Be, Hey Boy Hey Girl, Setting Sun & The Test. There's interviews with the Chemical Brothers themselves as well as a few other people such as Norman Cook(Fatboy Slim) and Noel Gallagher(Oasis), commenting on their favorite music. And "private reels", a bunch of home video clips from the Chem Bros during their music tour.

Overall, this DVD was made for the fans. Obviously.

Creepshow 2 isn't as great as the first one. Fans of the first one will probably have the sense of "have I just been ripped off here?". In the shortest terms, yes you have.

Instead of 5 short stories, you're introduced with three not-so-short stories. Yet, it's still a good movie. The stories are worth watching it especially The Raft and The Hitchhiker which were the reasons why I bought the movie.

And it's not just two missing stories, but you're also missing the wonderful direction from George A Romero. Instead of directing, George co-wrote Creepshow 2. So your missing that comic book-like direction. Too bad. I loved George's direction in the first film. It made me feel like I was watching an interactive Tales from the Crypt comic book.

An ok sequel. Creepshow fans might be disappointed with this sequel because of the lack of 5 short stories in total and George Romero not directing this time around. Other than that, it's a fairly descent sequel.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

I would like to see George Romero and Stephen King sit together once again for another Creepshow movie. At least, one last time.

If you enjoy reading comic books like Tales from the Crypt, then this movie is for you. The teaming up between George Romero and Stephen King is like the horror film industry version of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg(both teamed up for the Indiana Jones Saga).

The 5 short stories are wonderful and has that horror comic book feel. The direction were nice, coming from Night of the Living Dead director "George A Romero".

You will never forget stories like The Crate and They're Creeping Up To You. Once you've see it, you'll admire the great work George and Stephen has done.

A well job done from two creative horror guys. Bravo! And let me say, this movie is recommended for those who enjoyed the Tales from the Crypt comic books back in your childhood days. You won't be too disappointed with this movie.

Rating: 9/10

I swear, if IMDB would've let me, I would have rated this movie a ZERO out of 10. Yes, zero. The movie starts off saying the people in this movie aren't actors.

Who are they trying to fool? If someone actually believed them, then your a sucker for renting/buying this movie AND believing this movie was real. You can clearly see the cheap props, the lousy acting, and most of all, a script that tries too hard.

It's one big BORING ride. I want my 86 minutes back because I was bored to death watching this "mocku-mentary" movie. No scary parts. Just a bunch of random video clips and interviews.

I must admit, Blair Witch Project is hell of a LOT better this P.O.S.

Okay, so why does this movie suck? It's the style. I was hoping a big thrill ride with a similar directing skill as the Blair Witch Project. Unfortunately, the script and the directing isn't all that. It's boring and there's hardly ANY exciting parts. Not even one scary scene in this film. I've a lot better chessy films than this. Basically the script and the directing are the blame. Storyline got my attention but the script didn't nor did the acting.

Whatever you do, whatever you read, this movie is terrible in all fields(music, sounds, directing, script, acting...). Watch a more entertaining movie than this. I'm returning this movie back so I can get my refund.

Not recommended for any horror fan or BWP fan.

This is not American Psycho. Don't expect to see the wonderful direction, the calm music score, or Christian Bale in this "so-called" sequel to American Psycho.

I was expecting a similar plot to the first film but instead, the screenwriters butchered the American Psycho universe, killed off Patrick Bateman and wrote a story that could only be identified as a teen slasher flick.

How bad is the script? Really bad. To top it off, they killed Patrick Bateman. Not to mention that this "Patrick Bateman" character in the sequel was really sloppy.

Okay, apart from Patrick Bateman, this movie should've been made on it's own. A different title, use a different character than Bateman and you get a typical teen slasher movie. A teen who goes on a killing spree just to be a teacher assistance.

Sounds like one of those Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer type of movies. If you enjoyed the first then don't ruin your eyes by seeing this movie. Go read the novel "American Psycho" for your Patrick Bateman needs. Hopefully Mary Harron or Bret Easton Ellis can write a true American Psycho sequel.

My Rating: 2 out of 10. The Low-Down: Most movie sequels suck and this is one of them. The film suffered terrible script writing and most of all, it doesn't stay true to the first film.

The first was good and original. I was a not bad horror/comedy movie. So I heard a second one was made and I had to watch it.

What really makes this movie work is Judd Nelson's character and the sometimes clever script. A pretty good script for a person who wrote the Final Destination films and the direction was okay. Sometimes there's scenes where it looks like it was filmed using a home video camera with a grainy-look.

Great made-for-TV movie. It was worth the rental and probably worth buying just to get that nice eerie feeling and watch Judd Nelson's Stanley doing what he does best.

I suggest newcomers to watch the first one before watching the sequel, just so you'll have an idea what Stanley is like and get a little history background.

Exactly what part is based on the video game of the same name? I was hoping the series would be exactly based on the video games. Not inspired by them.

I wish the writers of the episodes gotten their facts straight and made it true to the computer games "Heavy Gear" and "Heavy Gear 2", both published by Activision. I was expecting something like ExoSquad or Battletech(which had some computer animation in it), where there's a war going on as both, good and bad, uses the Heavy Gears to destroy each other and cripple their bases.

A nice action/adventure show like "Roughnecks Starship Troopers". Instead, it's "American Gladiator" meets "Battletech". Hardly any battle scenes. I've only seen a couple of episodes. I don't know if they were building up a storyline, trying to introduce us these teenagers who uses Heavy Gears for sport and maybe later on, they join a force from invasion.

Who knows. The animation is great. Mainframe is changing quite a bit with their animation. The special effects and lighting effects have been improved since Action Man. Looks good. Too bad the scripts and storyline weren't good as the animation.

It's true. This is probably the worse Resident Evil/Biohazard game I've ever seen. The story isn't top notch like RE, RE CV, RE2, and RE3. It's short(you'll can beat it within an hour and obtain an A ranking) and the graphics is just terrible(think Dino Crisis' graphics in 8-bit graphics...terrible isn't it?). The replay value isn't great to Resident Evil standards and the game lacks on puzzles. The only puzzle is finding a key to open a locked door. And include the fact that the American version doesn't have the GunCon features(due to the recent school shootings) which gives Gun Survivor "the game with the worst controls ever!"

Don't waste your money on this Playstation-only game. Rent it first. Rating: 5/10 Pros: A different look to the Resident Evil world with an OK story. Cons: Terrible graphics and bad controls(unless you have the Jap or Eur version)