Hobbit review

Peter Jackson has returned once again to bring us the second installment in the Hobbit trilogy. But how

Does thing retelling of the book stand up against its predecessors? Keep reading to find out.

            Peter Jackson has become well known for his hugely successful adaptations of the Lord of the Rings series that he brought to the movie screen in the early 2000’s. Last year he booted up the J.J.R Tolkien train once again to bring us 3 movies based off the Hobbit books. And while the first one was a very good movie in itself, it had some flaws in that it was relatively slow to start off with, and was a more overall lighthearted movie. But unlike the first, The Desolation of Smaug brings us back to the good old days of the Lord of the Rings with much up actions scenes and  an overall more dark and serious tone then the first. This time around the dwarves and company are nearing closed and closer to their mountain. But time is ticking and they much reach it before Durans Day (sort of a dwarfy holiday of sorts). Unfortunately for them it seem like the world is out to get them, with their capture at the hands of the elves to the departure of Gandalf. And even worse for them is when they finally reach their old home. They mistakenly awaken an ancient dragon that has lived in their home for far too long. Realizing there mistake, they quickly try to dispatch the dragon before it go’s flying away to bring ruin to middle earth.

            As I said before, this movie is a much darker tale then the first, with the scene of them being attacked by spiders in the forest being especially tense. Even though many of the dwarves are nearing there old home, it seems like the spirit has been drained out of them from the hard journey. It seems like this time around their lighthearted spirit has dwindled and been replaced by a somber feeling. The new characters that were revealed were very good, with Legolas making a return as the son of the king, to the appearance of Beorn, a half man half bear shapeshifter that helps the dwarves out on their journey.

            This film has one downside and unfortunately it’s quite a major one. The studio thought that small people killing orcs and many other fiendish creatures isn’t enough, so they decided to add a love storyline between one of the dwarves and an elvish woman. This plot point does absolutely nothing for the story, only making some parts of it especially cringe and almost impossible to watch. I know sometimes movies like to deviate away from the books, but this time they went too far with it adding nothing for the movie, and being my only complaint.

            The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug has surpassed my expectations this time, leaving a impression that won’t soon be forgotten. I highly recommend that you see this movie.

Best Shows On Netflix:The Office

Many of your reading this spend almost half of your day working or attending school, so after you come home and get your work done, I’m sure you want to relax, and many of our versions of relaxing include watching a little bit of TV. But what to watch you might ask? Join me as I suggest some of the best television shows for you entertainment.
Now these days I would suggest that you get Netflix if you don’t already have it. For the small amount of you know, Netflix is a video streaming company that for a relatively low price of $7 a month, lets you watch all the TV shows and movies you want.  One of the first shows I think everybody should watch on Netflix is the Office. The Office is a comedy show, based on a Pennsylvanian paper factory, run by the fun loving quirky Michael Scott. The wide variety of characters the show offers makes it very relatable, from the by the books, weird, nerdy Dwight, to the interesting relationship between the laid back and cool Jim and the nice and likable Pam.
Not only are the characters good, the situations that they get themselves in are hilarious, some of which include throwing a “Office Olympics” while Michael is out, to the incredibly awkward situations Michael gets into trying to befriend his co workers. There are also some fairly emotional bits, especially surrounding the Pam and Jim situation (Watch the show to find out). But some of the best parts of the show come out of Dwight, whose eccentric attitude towards his co workers sets him up for some very good scenes, especially with Michael.
With all the shows available on Netflix, I would totally recommend the office for anybody who wants to get a good laugh and relax after a hard day.

What is the OUYA

This holiday season there are plenty of gifts to be given, and some of the most popular this year are the newly released video game consoles.  But there is one console that has gone under the radar this season, which for it being the number one backed projects on Kick starer (a website where users can donate to a game/console to make it a reality), is quite a weird thing. So how does this console stack up against the Xbox One and PS4? Keep reading to find out.

                This new console is called the OUYA. There premise is that it can offer a large variety of console/app games for a low price. This it does hold up as the console itself is fairly cheap, sitting at a modest $99, a whole 300-400 dollars less than the other competing consoles. But the price variation shows, with its limited library of games. Now this wouldn’t be that terrible if it weren’t for the games itself. Many of the games it offers are weak when compared to the games available elsewhere, with many of them being almost direct copies of games straight from the android or apple marketplace. These are however free, so you’re not paying directly for them.

                Many of the games that are not directly from the app store are actually games that the developers have made for the system, and some are games that were ported from the consoles. And although many of the original games look quite fun and entertaining, you have to ask is it $100 worth of entertainment. Many of the games on the console look to be quite not detailed and boring, and with the easy to access internet, I’m sure you could find many other FREE games that would entertain you much longer and without you paying a dime out of your pocket.

                Many might look at the OUYA and think that it would make a good gift for their child or for you to buy yourself this holiday season.  This might not be a horrible idea for a parent of a young child. Anybody older then this might want to stay away from this console. This especially applies to you if you have a smart phone in your possession, as I’m almost 100% sure that you can find better games for a much less price on your respective markets.

                The OUYA was an oddity, with it being the number one most backed/funded idea on Kick starter. This made the ball rolling for it to be a roaring success, filling the void between mobile and console gaming.  But what it did accomplish was a awkward spot in between that seems to turn off players of both side away. A good idea, but it shows that even great ideas can flop.

                Source: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console

Hunger Games Catching Fire Review

Many people can agree that book to movie transitions don’t always quite hit the mark (even the harry potter movies). But unlike the first in its trilogy, Catching fire has become one of my favorite movies I’ve seen for awhile, as it retained a large amount of info from the book without taking too much out, all while staying action packed for the most of it.

                The first movie in the series I thought was quite poor, with the movie never capturing the sense of danger or fear in the arena like the book did, as I never quite thought that katniss was in much trouble throughout the movie. But unlike the its predecessor, Catching fire set the tone perfectly from start to finish. You could tell that our hero’s are in for a bad year this time, as the darker sadder atmosphere implied. The grittier images this time around reinforce this perfectly, and really set the tone that the first film never really got down. I also think another reason why this film did so well was that it was simply a darker and grittier tale this time around, with multiple riots breaking out in the districts really adding to the the film in a positive way, as I always thought the hunger games books really fit well with the “All hell is breaking loose” sort of thing that works perfectly.

                I also think another factor that attributed to the films improvement was the actors. Now it was the same actors that played Katniss and Peeta in the original movie, but they seem to have found their place and really have become the characters this time.  You can see Katniss and Peeta’s strained love, and Haymitch this time has really filled in on his role as the drunken mentor that has to send his two victors back into the ring really fight with emotions, something that the first film never really got down so well. The new characters introduced in this movie are solid in their roles, with the sexy and charming Finnick and the lovable but insane Johanna helping our hero’s in the arena this time, both of which play their characters perfectly.      

                With a solid story this time around that only left out one plot point, great actors that perfectly accentuated their characters, and a great theme of dread and war, Catching fire is a mass improvement over The Hunger Games. I really hope they follow this path, as I can already feel that the next in the franchise is going to be better than the last.

How to Sneak Into a R Movie.

With many of the more recent movies and best movies ever made being released with an R rating, it may seem that if you don’t qualify for the 17+ age limit, you’re out of luck. But if you follow my step by step guide, you won’t be missing out on this year’s hits.

            Step one (Picking a movie): Ok to start things off you need to pick what movie you’re going to see and what movies is going to be the “decoy”. This may seem like a predictable first step, but since you do not have the necessary age to see the movie you want, you need to pick a movie that you wouldn’t mind seeing anyways. Taking a friend is always good, which I will mention the benefits later. Now after you’ve chosen your two movies, make sure there times match up and get yourself to the nearest theater.

Tip one (Cheating the man): You might have a theater where there are hallways with doors leading outside from the theaters. So why you might ask would you even bother paying for the tickets? Well unfortunately this is considered illegal and if caught can lead to a hell of a lot more than a 10$ movie ticket. So I don’t recommend taking the risk. No really, don’t do it.

            Step two (The ticket office): After you have arrived at the theater, you need to enter and go up to the ticket booth. With money in hand purchase tickets to your “decoy” movie. The friend benefit would come in handy here, as if you can get them to get into the lobby and find out which movies are on which side, it will solve a lot of the risk of acting suspicious later. After you have purchased your tickets, enter into the lobby.

            Step three (The ticket worker): This is what makes or breaks your movie going experience. The ticket worker is the employee whose sole job is to take your ticket and direct you where your movie is playing in the theater. If your decoy movie and actual movie are placed on the same side, then you’ve can skip down to step four. Now for you guys who got unlucky or lack any friends, this is the tricky part. Even thought you might not think the worker wouldn’t notice you going right after they said left, they more often than not will and will forcibly direct you to the appropriate side of the theater. The way to solve this is to simply go down the appropriate hallways and then proceed to the concession stand. Even if you don’t buy anything, you can then go to the hallways of your desired movement with little inconvenience.

            If you have followed my previous outlined steps you should be sitting and enjoying your movie with no worry what so ever. I have personally tried this method numerous times, and have had it work every time. I hope that you give this a try, and if it works, please feel free to let me know.

Twitter and Facebook Save Multiple Lives In China

An unusual spree of hornet attacks in northwest China's Shaanxi Province has injured a total of 1,640 people, 42 of them fatally. Among the people injured in the attacks, which began in July, 206 are receiving treatment in the hospital, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said, calling for utmost efforts in treating patients and minimizing the number of casualties. The commission asked local health agencies to coordinate their hornet attack responses with agricultural, forestry and firefighting departments, including stopping hornets in populous areas, with the swarms starting to invade large cities and towns, futhering the rate of which people have become injured or hurt.

Social media has been a large impact on preventing numerous attacks and warnings. With the Chinese version of twitter and Facebook readily available, people have been posting where the attacks have occurred and have passed on vital information for how to prevent and avoid the attacks. Officials believe that these sits have prevented and informed people in time to stay indoors and not to venture outside.

Three medical experts in critical care medicine, infectious disease and nephrology have been sent to the field to aid the treatment of critical patients, the commission said that the cause for the attacks has not been officially announced.Huang Rongyao, an insect control expert at the Forestry Bureau of Ankang City, the worst-hit by the hornets, attributed the trend to local vegetation growth, which has increased the area populated by hornets, and two months of continuous hot weather, which has made the insects unusually more active. Hua Baozhen, a professor of entomology at Northwest Agriculture & Forestry University, meanwhile believes the main cause is a decrease in the number of the hornets' natural enemies, including spiders and birds, a result of ecological changes.

Elsewhere, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region also reported human injuries from hornet bites between July and September.

Top 3 Halloween Horror Movies

Halloween has finally arrived and with it comes a mob of scary decorations and small children begging for candy. Not only does Halloween make everything just a little bit scarier, it makes it the perfect time to watch horror movies. These days many of the new horror movies that have been released have been met with pretty scary reviews, with most of them following the same cookie cutter “Possession” or “Ghost haunts house” themes, not many of them stand out above the rest. Now I have to warn you that all of my suggestions are rated R, but the content in these movies isn’t too horrible for today’s standards, with some of it being so bad it’s funny. But if you really want to find good horror movies, be prepared to take a trip back 30-40 years for the scare of your life as I list off my personal favorite horror movies to watch near Halloween.

            #3. The Friday the Thirteenth series. A blast from the past, the Friday the Thirteenth series has everything a good horror movie should have. It combines good suspension with cheesy yet brutal violence and snappy dialogue to create the perfect Halloween flick. With its hulking hockey mask clad, machete wielding villain endlessly slaughter the teens that have dared venture into his camp, it makes for a good time. And although the visuals aren’t groundbreaking or revolutionary compared to today’s movies, it makes up for it in spades, with the series being held responsible for creating the slasher genre.

            #2. Nightmare on Elm Street. Next on my countdown is a movie that followed in my previous selections footsteps. After the release of “Friday the Thirteenth” many other studios rushed to follow up and try to get in on the huge public outcry for the slasher genre. Many of these failed, but a few shined above the rest, like Nightmare on Elm Street. Now what sets this series apart from The Friday the Thirteenth series was its tone, changing from horribly frightening to comical and almost light hearted. This time our series revolves around a child molester who was burned to death when the parents of his victims found out and came after him. But death was not the end for Mr. Kruger and he came back with a vengeance of the now grown children of the street he once terrorized by sneaking into their dreams that killed them in it and in real life. Its popularity can be seen by the almost worldwide iconic glove that he wore while carrying out his plans. If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend you do.

            #1. The Chainsaw Massacre. This movie may be the most iconic of the bunch, spawning multiple sequels and remakes even today, about 40 years after the original debuted. But even though some of them weren’t half bad, the best still lies with the original movie. With it being the first of its kind, it shocked audiences around the globe with its violence and horror inducting character with seemingly no motives other than to exterminate his “visitors” with his trusty chainsaw. With great casting and superb effects for the times, this movie puts chills down your spine now more than ever.

           

T.V vs The Internet

The internet has slowly over the last 10 years become one of the most widely used and the most influential invention of the late 20^th and early 21th century. With its coming, it has replaced/ made easier so many things we once used day to day. But is the Internet going to replace television?  Here are the facts and you make the decision.

                The internet has streamlined many things that once took quite a long time to do, and you would think that by now it would have replaced T.V. I mean not only is the internet faster, it can also stream videos in seconds, and instead of waiting 3 days for that episode of The walking dead that you missed, you can just go onto the site and watch it then. Another reason you may have watched the T.V in the past is for coverage on the big game, but now you can watch the game right on your computer. And unlike the television, where you need a console to play games, as soon as you buy a computer and hook it up to the internet, your set for all your gaming related needs.

                And now here is what the television has going for it. T.V has been around for 60 years and has had 60 years to tweak and perfect it. It has certainly come a very long way from the tiny boxes from our past. As I mentioned before, although the internet has ease of accessibility, not everyone has it. More people in the world have accesses to a television then the internet, because all you need is power, no need for a router or modem. And while you can watch episodes of shows on the internet, the show always debuts on television first. Piracy is a big crime on the internet, and is almost always not worth the risk when you can just watch your shows right on the T.V.

Well I hope after hearing the facts on T.V and the Internet you can make the decision of which is better than the other.

PS4 vs. XBOX ONE

Tis the season for a multitude of games and new gaming consoles. But this season is a special one with the introduction of the next generation of gaming consoles. The consoles in question, The PS4 and the Xbox 1, have been highly anticipated and both boast their own type on special qualities and advantages over there competitor. I will be explaining both, and I hope this will allow you to pick a side.

            The PS4 is the next console that will be released by Sony. Following the trend of sticking an ever growing number after the words PS (which stand for Play Station), this new console will be the 4^th in its line. Its predecessor, the PS3, was met with very high praise for its free online capabilities and overall superb graphic capabilities. The PS4 follows suit with this trend, boasting some of the best graphical capabilities in the market today, only being outclassed by computers which can cost 5-10 times as much. Not only making gains in the visual department, the company boast a personal experience with the console as well, with the PS4 tracking both the controller in a gamer's hand, as well as their face. They also want you to experience the full effect of the console without having to pay for it, and they offer almost all of their online services (Netflix, online gameplay, and to play free to play games) for free with no extra charge to the user. This feature has been consistent with the PlayStation line, and will not change for this one. The PS4 will also be able to play any used game from any outside source, be it your friends or a game you bought for a lower price at a retail location such as GameStop or Video Games Etc. The console will be shipping out in November this year and will be priced modestly at $399.

            In the other corner lies the Xbox 1, which was made and designed by Microsoft. Like the PS4, the Xbox 1 follows its predecessors footsteps in name, albeit ditching the 360 idea and dumbing it down to just 1. The Xbox 360 was the most popular/recognizable console on the market, with its early access to games and DLC, to its iconic controller and white sphere X marked logo. But how does the new Xbox compare with the PS4? One of the main differences is price. Unlike its completion, the Xbox 1 will be priced at $499, $100 more than its competition. This difference may not seem like a huge leap, but to its target audience, high school/college students, $100 is a pretty big increase on something that’s not a necessity. The Xbox 1 also had some extremely hard backlash from the gaming community, once mandating a 24-hour online check in and restrictions on used games. These statements became so controversial, that Microsoft had to quickly resolve and changed the system to be compatible with used and games and got rid of the check in. Graphic wise, the Xbox 1 matches the PS4 in strength and capacity, and includes a huge 500GB memory just to begin with, swamping the PS4’s measly 8GB space. It also includes a build in blue ray player, the first of its kind in the Xbox line.

            After reading the facts about each console, I hope that you can decided which of them you will be asking for Santa this year.

 

Is ask.fm good or bad?

Ask.fm has become one of most popular things to do on twitter. What it does is it lets people make anonymous accounts to ask people questions. The website then tweets out the question and the user’s response with it. While this may seem like a fun thing to do with friends, it can get out of control and the use of not knowing the names of the askers may cause bullying to spike.

 

            Many of times, I have gotten on to twitter and watched my feed spit out a few dozen ask.fm’s. Many of these are pretty funny and enjoyable, but every time I see 10 new ones, I see at least 2 bad ones. With the animosity of the website, it makes it easier to bully fellow students without fear of repercussion. Since people don’t know who you are, you can bully people by asking them mean questions or putting others down.

            While the majority of ask.fm can be quite fun and enjoyable, making it easier to get to know people, there’s always people who bully others and ruin it for everyone else.

 

Gravity Review

Gravity has pushed the limits of reality, with its effects making me question what is real and what isn’t. The movie itself was 4 and a half years in the making, the directors wanted to make sure that every single detail was perfect, with its computer animation mixed with principle photography making the film seem as real as a film has come close to.

            The movie begins with 2 astronauts, played by Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, working on a broken satellite. Unfortunately there work was cut short when debris from a destroyed Russian satellite hits there ship and catapults them into space. They are then put in a race against time was there oxygen is being slowly drained away, and the same debris coming right around to hit them again in only 90 minutes. They must use their knowledge of gravity and physics and math to get them back to safety before it’s too late.

            Story wise, Gravity is just your everyday survival films, with it also grasping the horror genre with the dead of space being the one and only antagonist. Sandra Bullock’s character is alone for most of the movie, which cements the fear in her as she slowly loses her precious oxygen. Her change in emotions is excellent, and they alone really sell the film.

Gravity has what I believe to be the best special effects to date in a movie. Most movies don’t truly grasp how to incorporate there effects into the movie, with most just saying “Hey let’s just put in a lot of big explosions and people like that so more explosions” But this movie uses intense effects to capture outer space flawlessly. Sometimes when I was watching this movie, I would have to remind myself that it was just that, a movie.  

            Gravity has earned itself a PG-13 rating and rightfully deserves it. It does have its fair share of language, with it dropping the f bomb once, but other than that, it should be the same amount of language found in any other film. There is one scene that has a jump scare in it, with the scene itself being fairly graphic, but it doesn’t show anything off the charts. The rating mostly comes from the intense environment that the characters are trapped in, with you not knowing for the entire film if they are going to make it or not. I would suggest you should be at least 10 if you want to see this movie, and even then you need to have a parent tag along, but I’m 100% sure it will not be a waste of money for them.

With its amazing script and acting combined with the immense and amazing special effects, I cant give this movie enough praise. It takes the genre of horror/survival and pushes it to the max with its staggering effects of space and its riveting plot. I highly suggest seeing this movie as soon as you can. I promise you will not be disappointed.

What is Reddit

Reddit.  What do you think of when you hear the word Reddit? Some may think of a worldwide multimedia source for all of your needs in billions of categories, or you may think of a dark evil place, that has called the “cesspool of the internet”. But whatever your view may be, Reddit has become almost synonymous with the internet, with the site drawing in millions every day.

                Reddit was started by 2 college students in 2005. The site started as a simple open funded project which tried to take news and types of media and bundle them all in one website. It stayed fairly unknown until about mid July, where it had a massive popularity spike. If you have never been on reddit before, let me explain what you can do. With reddit you can make an account and start browsing through its many pages, with it having a page (Known as sub reddits) for almost anything you can think of, from funny pictures to an entire page about the oak tree. You can subscribe to the page to get its top posts on your wall, and you can post things to any page you would like as well. If people enjoy your post they may give it an up-vote, and if you get enough, you may be able to get featured on the front page of the site. With this comes bragging rights and also earns you karma, which is like a score system (Higher karma means overall better posts). It since has grown exponentially from its original design, with the website making over 15 million dollars a year, and is estimated to be worth 3.5 billion dollars. The site has started many things that are now in our pop culture, and has hosted many of fundraising events, with one making over $200,000 to donate for relief work in Haiti after the earthquake.

                It has also become a hit with celebrities, with many popular actors hosting their very own AMA. AMA stands for ask my anything and it gives the chance to let everyday people post a question to the actor, and if they’re lucky, they very well might have it answered. A few examples of celebs that have hosted their own include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Gates, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, PSY, Bear Grylls, and even our own president, Barrack Obama.

                While reddit does have its positives, it also has its dark side. It has grown a reputation of being a “cesspool” for the pedophiles, creepers, criminals, and other bad types of people. When I said that there was a page for anything, I wasn’t lying. Many people just hear of the bad things that happen time to time, but with millions of people coming in and out of the site daily, it’s expected. Reddit has cleaned up quite a lot from a few years ago, and has greatly improved its security measures. But even with them in place, I wouldn’t recommend visiting the site unless you are 14+.

                I hope that I did a fairly good job explaining what reddit is, and I highly suggest that you make an account on the site and explore the many pages it has to offer.

               

                

What is Youtube?

YouTube had become one of the most popular sites on the internet. It not only introduced the easy accessibility of worldwide video sharing, it also created a way for people to communicate with videos and in ways that no website had ever accomplished before it to its degree. It not only created a way to share videos, it also introduced careers that were solely based on making these videos. People can make over $150,000 a year just creating new content for their loyal fan base, a job that would have been laughed at 10 years ago. But how did YouTube become the immense powerhouse of the internet as it is today, and how do people make 6 figures a year off of making videos. Well your about to find out.

Back in 2005 3 employees off PayPal created YouTube, oblivious of the multimillion dollar business that would come. They simply created the site just so they could share videos with their friends with ease. Flash-forward 8 years from then, and you can see what there once small site has become. YouTube has become the 2nd most popular site on the internet, just beaten out by Facebook, but however may edge to the first place spot soon enough as Facebook’s popularity has begun to dwindle. This spot as the second most viewed or visited site is thanks to its perfect timing. As I said before, pre 2005 there wasn’t a large worldwide video viewing sites. There were a few small ones, but nothing as large as YouTube.

Recently YouTube has become a job form some people. With their millions of subscribers, popular YouTube celebrities such as PewDiePie or Smosh with over 10 Million subscribers are making hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad revenue a year. Even without having a million subscribers, you can still make a decent sum off of ads and YouTube partnership with even a couple thousand subscribers. Using this system benefits from both the content producer and YouTube itself, with YouTube gaining more and more people coming in to the website, while the You Tubers gain money from YouTube and for Ad’s to be put on the videos. YouTube has also influenced popular culture with the website itself becoming almost a pseudo television with each different YouTube being its own special channel.

YouTube might be the most influential website of the 21^st century. With it came the ease of global video sharing and opened a new type of jobs that came with partnership.

 

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2 review

This weekend I decided to go out to the theaters and give Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2 a shot.  The first film got my attention with its constant humor and fun animation style. And with the voice of Mr. T as the uptight police officer Earl and Anna Faris as the bubbly and likeable news reporter Sam Sparks , what’s not to love. And while this film seems like it was more aimed as an all out children’s movie, it still has some laughs for me and was a fairly enjoyable ride.

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2 starts off where the first film left off. In case you haven’t seen the first movie, here’s a quick recap. The original movie had Flynt Lockwood as the budding scientist whose inventions have brought shame upon him. Wanting to prove something to himself and his father, he invents a machine that can turn water atoms into food. Using this machine brings amazing press to his dreary and sad town of chewandswallow. But unfortunately the evil mayor puts too much pressure on him, which causes the machine to overload and instead create a giant food storm. The citizens of the town escape the storm and Flynt manages to stop the machine, but the town’s people flee the city never to return.

And this is where the 2^nd movie picks up from. The president of a large company called Live Corp named Chester V has tasked Flynt and his gang from the first movie to go back to the island to retrieve the food making machine. Being his idol, he instantly agrees. But he is then warned that instead of just having food, the remnants of the city in the first movie are now inhabited by creatures that are half food and half animals. Many of the creatures are really well designed and appealing to people of all ages, from cheese spiders and dog like Strawberries, the food animals are varied and interesting to see and watch.  These food animals make for some appealing eye candy, and even steal the show away from the main characters sometimes.

On the flip side, you can see that this movie was mostly designed for a younger audience, with a lot less serious moments then the first and a more overall upbeat and happy story. There were times when I would roll my eyes from the jokes, and sometimes even the dialogue. In the first movie there was a good share of moments that were fairly intense and exciting, which this movie unfortunately doesn’t have.

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2 is a fun movie to go see, but don’t expect anything to high. With its colorful visuals just making it work, its sometimes childlike jokes and dialogue make this a movie that  I would recommend that you should see this with a younger sibling, because if you go alone at a age older than 12-13, I don’t think you would get your money’s worth.

Breaking Bad Review

Breaking Bad has quickly become the most talked about TV show. It combines excellent writing together with tense moments and combines them together for a flawless performance. This show has become voted the best show in history and it shows. With the last episode viewing Sunday night, I would like to give this show a review and give it a quick rundown before the last episode ends.

Breaking Bad is a show about Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher whose life was turned around when he discovered he has stage 3 cancer of the lung. He knows the cancer will kill him soon, and he wants to be able to financially support his family before his death. His life will be forever changed when he tags along with his brother in law, DEA agent Hank, on a drug bust. There he sees one of his old student Jesse Pinkmen. Together Walt teams up with Jesse to cook meth. Using his knowledge as a chemistry teacher, he soon produces the best crystal meth around town.  He then starts using the name Heisenberg to disguise his name and his meth lord name. But with the best comes the competitors. And they are not happy about it. The longer the episodes come on, the more eccentric characters are introduced like the wheel chair ridden psychopath Hector and the cool and calculated drug kingpin Gus.  But it seems like for every character introduced 2 of them are killed off.

This show has changes everywhere you look. In the start of the series Walter is just a normal human being who is fed up with his life and wants to just provide for his family. But as the seasons tick down, you can see the visible change from everyday man to a murder. As the show goes on, Walt seems to almost turn from the protagonist to the antagonist.  The writing as I mentioned is perfectly, tying all loose ends together so you feel satisfied. It also adds to the tension and twists of the show, making you guess what’s going to happen next. The characters are all acted perfectly; making even some of the most evil ones oddly likeable and gives you mixed feelings in a good way. The show makes you question your morals as well, with you questioning constantly who is the good guys, or if there really are any.

Unfortunately for the younger TV watchers, this show might not be for them. It has a constant stream of violence and language, with AMC giving the show TV 14, but the DVD versions are uncensored and are can most definitely comply with the R rating. The theme of the show is dealing meth and the dangers of doing so, with almost every episode depicting a form of violence and most of them are bloody and gore filled. This plus the language makes this one of the most mature shows on the air right now, and I don’t recommend this to anybody under 15-14, and even they should be able to handle the mature themes and depictions of violence.

Breaking Bad has quickly become the most popular show on air for a reason. There’s a reason why this show was given a 99/100 by Metacritic, the highest rating it has ever given a show.  Its picture perfect writing and dialogue with its spot on actor performances really sell the show.  The plot is amazing with each episode giving you what you want and almost never leaves anything for disappointment.  If you are old or mature enough to handle this show, I highly recommend that you give it a view.

Insidious 2 review

When insidious was released, I was instantly drawn to it. And while it wasn’t perfect, it did its job of giving me a good scare, and I enjoyed it. The creepiness of the first film was executed well, so I was genuinely scared when I saw it on screen. Unfortunately, Insidious 2 was not able to instill such fear and even at some parts becomes silly.

The plot of the first movie is that Dalton can separate his body and enter a magical spirit world called the Further. When he separates his body he could be possessed by other spirits. Josh, Dalton’s father, also has the ability and in the end of the last movie, used it to retrieve his son from the Further. Unfortunately for him, while Dalton was able to return to his body, his body was possessed by the bride in black.

This is where the second movie picks up, with the family employing some ghost hunters to help look up the bride in black. After they figure out more about her, they travel to the Further together and get Josh’s spirit back after they killed the mother of the spirit that possessed Josh.

While the first movie used good suspenseful moments for their scares, this one sticks to good old jump scares, which got old pretty quick. The whole tone of this movie has been toned down a little bit, with the dark creepy mood replaced by a sillier and almost funny mood.

For your money’s worth I would recommend that you wait and go rent the first movie before you even decided to see its sequel. Then and even then I would tell you to wait until this movie goes to a matinee showing to save you a few bucks.

GTA 5 Review

With the new gaming consoles just around the corner, many gaming companies are pushing out last minute titles on the Xbox 306 and Ps3 and soon the PC. And Rockstar has delivered what might be the last great game on this generation of consoles and possibly the best game of the year. GTA V has improved on almost if not every feature from its predecessor. The normally one man story has been replaced by 3 main characters, which are all connected or have met in the past. Each one of them has a different and unique back-story that connects them to each other. Michael is a middle aged retired bank robber who wants to just settle down with his family, while Trevor is a psychopath who comes off as likable but has his violent side. The contrast of characters gives you a way to play who most fits your own personality.  Story wise, this is the most in-depth in the series focusing on the characters interaction with each other to complete missions, switching from character to character to complete objectives and missions.

One trait that has stuck with the GTA series is its violence, which this one most defiantly not trimmed down on. If you’ve played any other titles in the long running series, you know what to expect. There is one exception though, where you are forced to torture a man for information, getting bonus points for trying out all the different types of methods. This scene is fairly intense and is defiantly not for the squeamish. But other than that scene, you get pretty much what you would expect from GTA. This game is most deserving of its M rating and shouldn’t be played by anybody under 15 or 16.

The overall mechanics and graphics are stunning. The controls can be tailored to your personal taste, cementing the game as a personal experience. Like I said before, the main story is the most intense and fulfilling in the series, from high speed chases to robberies, each mission feels unique and different from the last. The graphics of this game really get to show off the capabilities of the Xbox 360 and Ps3, putting together gorgeous shading and wonderful and robust colors.

While there might not be many sour spots on this gem, there are a few. The amazing graphics can only really be shown off on the soon to be released PC version, while the console versions can be slow and blurry at times. And at the time of release, there is no multiplayer mode, so you can’t dominate the city of Los Santos with friends just yet.

With the latest installment in the long running series, you can really see how the developers pushed for the best experience you could find. With its amazing graphics and intense and fast paced game play, this may not only be the best game of the year, it might be the best game of this generation of consoles. I would recommend anybody who owns one of these consoles to give this game a try.

                

Is iOS 7 really what it was cracked up to be?

It’s finally here. After many months of hype and hysteria iOS 7 has finally hit the world this past Wednesday. But is it really worth the download? First off the update takes half a lifetime to download. If that wasn’t bad enough, you need 2.9 gigs of space left on your apple device. This may not seem like an overly large amount, but when u only own the 8 gig variety (like me), it’s pretty tough deleting a large selection of songs or apps. On top of all that, if you weren’t connected to a source of Wi-Fi or your battery wasn’t above 50% it wouldn’t even start. After your done waiting for half a century, and you see that shiny white apple logo startup screen you know it’s done.

 Now after hearing the tedium and unreliable nature of actually receiving the download, you would think that the changes would be good. And I am happy to say that for the most part they are. Now apple has been around in the market for about 7-8 years now, and even though some features have changed over time, the chunk of what made apple who they are stayed relatively the same. But we were promised the largest and most innovative update yet. With iOS 7 came several new features including iTunes radio, the control center, automatic updating, dynamic wallpapers, airdrop (which the android phones have had for a while now), and large visual updates to the apps and the screens themselves. On the whole, I think this update was a good one for apple. The new features are nice, with control center centralizing many well used features that were once restricted to the settings button to just a down swipe. All in all the new features added in this update were very useful and have almost no drawbacks. The visual update is nice, featuring new art for all the apps, lock screen, home screen, and many other small details. Everything is clean and crisp, running and transitionalizing smoothly from app to app.

Now with every good side there’s a bad one as well. While the new visual and add ons are good and pleasing, there are some changes that come with that. The battery life of the device has been hit and for some hard. With this newest update you’ll soon find out that your battery will be draining even faster than before. Unfortunately, if don’t own at least an iPhone 4, you won’t be receiving this update. Even if you do own a 4 or 4s you’re still missing out on a few of the newer features, but this should persuade you from not getting it.

All in all the iOS7 update brought a few drastic changes and while some of the will stand out among the others, all are an improvement from the original design. If you can get past the slower than sloth loading speed and the faster battery consumption, this update will fill and improve all of your apple related needs.