Red Dead Revolver
Greetings, Red Dead Revolver is a video game by Rockstar San Diego and was released over a decade ago, back in 2004. It was the first game in the Red Dead series, having been followed by the well-loved Red Dead Redemption in 2006 and Red Dead Redemption 2 which is scheduled to be released later this year. Despite being in the same series, Revolver appears to have limited links to Redemption but the next instalment could bridge the gap between Red and John Marston’s adventures. The game’s score uses various tracks from several composers after their deaths such as Mario Migliardi, Bruno Nicolai and Francesco De Masi. While there are several main characters, most of the actors and actresses voicing them are not well known. The main character, Red Harlow, is portrayed by Robert T. Bogue.
The story starts in 1880s America when Nate Harrow returns home after finding gold in Bear Mountain and making him an exceedingly wealthy man. His reunion with his Native American wife called Falling Star and his young son named Red is cut unexpectedly short. Raiders begin to attack the Harlow family in which both Nate and Falling Star are killed by the raider’s leader, Colonel Darren. Having watched his parent’s die and filled with a strong will to survive, Red pulls his father’s pistol from a fire it had landed in during the combat. Through the pain he fires it at Colonel Darren as the flames irreparably damage Red’s hand. The impact tears Darren’s arm clean off and provides Red with a chance to escape from his assailants.
Many years later an adult Red has become a bounty hunter and still seeks revenge for the deaths of his parents. His dangerous escapades bring him to the small town of Brimstone in which he works for the local sheriff hunting quarry and pursuing outlaws. During his travels, he comes into contact with other main characters such as British sharpshooter Jack Swift and Annie Stoakes, a successful cattle rancher. As Red progresses throughout the story, he starts to uncover the conspiracy behind the massacre of his mother and father as well as coming closer to identifying his parent’s murderers.
Overall, this was a very fun game to play despite some bugs and glitches that made it quite difficult to progress at times. Revolver is much more cartoonish than it’s more serious and realistic sequel. For instance, one of the primary antagonists has a canon in lieu of an arm and one minor villain, a carnival ringmaster, gains the ability to teleport by drinking a magical potion. While many characters, including main ones, don’t really get a fleshed out personality or unique backstory I found the game to be quite charming in its simplicity. My review of Redemption back in September 2016 was full of praise for the game and Red Dead Revolver has only further added to my positive experience with the series. I look forward to seeing what else Rockstar can do with this intellectual property, especially regarding their plans with Red Dead Redemption 2 and how that might link all the games together.
Plot=7/10
Characters=8/10
Graphics=6/10
Overall=8/10
Quote of the Day
I just know that there are two theories when arguing with women. And neither one works.
John Marston
Red Dead Redemption
La La Land
Greetings, La La land is an award winning 2016 musical staring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as the two lead performers. It was directed by Damien Chazelle who had previously worked on films including Cloverfield’s spiritual sequel, 10 Cloverfield Lane and Whiplash. The music was conducted by Justin Hurwitz who also composed the score for Whiplash but he appears to be relatively new to the businesses as he only has a few scores credited to him. The OST has won numerous awards including best original song and best original score from the Golden Globes. A lot of the songs are purely orchestral while the rest mainly consist of duets by Stone and Gosling or solo pieces by one of the main performers. Supporting cast members include J.K Simmons, who while having a minor role, is probably the most notable of the actors and actresses in the film. Simmons also collaborated with Chazelle and Hurwitz in the past while working as a prominent actor on the critically acclaimed Whiplash.
The plot begins on a highway in Los Angles in which the two central characters are both blocked in traffic in their separate cars. Mia, an aspiring actress with hopes of becoming an internationally recognised star while currently working as barista, is played by Emma Stone. Jazz pianist Sebastian is portrayed by Ryan Gosling, known for his roles in movies such as 2011’s Drive. An infuriated Sebastian honks his horn in a fit of road rage at Mia, who is unaware of the moving traffic as she is too busy practicing her audition lines while sitting in the gridlock. It is alter revealed that the audition does not go well for Mia and she does not get the part. Later that same night she goes to a lavish party in Hollywood Hills and at the end of the night she discovers that her car has been towed. As such, she is forced to walk back home but during her travels she hears a piece music that catches her attention. Drawn to it, she walks into the building that it is emanating from and finds Sebastian sat at a piano and playing the instrument. Sebastian, who was to play a set list of Christmas music but chose to play his own improvisation, is fired on the spot due to previous warnings being unheeded. The pianist then leaves the room and ignores Mia who was about to compliment him on his encaptivating performance.
The next scene takes place a few months later when the two meet again at another party. At this point in time, Sebastian has swallowed his pride and joined a 198s cover band in order to pay his bills. Mia, upon recognizing him, teases Sebastian by requesting “I Ran (So Far Away)’ by English band A Flock of Seagulls. It is a song that he considers beneath his talents and a demeaning insult to his self-perception as being a serious musician with a strong passion for Jazz. Once the party is over the two walk together to their cars and begin to sing their first duet. During this scene, the chemistry between the two becomes more apparent to the audience as they sing about their feelings of attraction in a humorous song entitled “A Lovely Night” in which they playful insult and jibe at each other. Their relationship begins to blossom when Sebastian offers to take Mia on a date to see the 1955 film ‘Rebel without a cause’ in which their date ends with the couple dancing in the Griffith Observatory.
The film’s storyline is rather simplistic and doesn’t include many characters or side-plots, having a heavy focus on Mia and Sebastian’s intimate relationship instead. It is also a very vibrant movie with aesthetically pleasant locations and visually impressive scenes that prove to be very memorable. While I have no particular interest in or fondness for musicals, I did enjoy La La land despite my earlier concerns about seeing a movie of this genre. I also believe that the conclusion, which was intended to leave the audience with a bitter sweet ending, was the right decision for the movie to take. It fits in well with the consistent rivalling themes of La La Land of sacrifice, dreams and love. Due to my opinions on La La Land, I would be interested in exploring Whiplash and any future collaboration between Chazelle and Hurwitz.
Plot=8/10
Characters=9/10
Special Effects=7/10
Overall=9/10
What is it that makes a man a man? Is it his origins — the way things start? Or is it something else, something harder to describe?
Professor Bruttenholm
Hellboy
The Dark Tower
Greetings, the Dark Tower is chronologically the last book of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, a collection of novels that provides a connecting bridge for all of the revered horror writer’s stories. Many characters from King’s other novels are either featured in this conclusive book or are mentioned in passing and therefore adding to the overall lore of this fictitious universe. It is the seventh instalment in the franchise and was released back in 2004. While it serves as the finale of the adventure, King wrote a short novel entitled ‘The Wind through the Keyhole’ in 2012, which is situated between ‘Wizard and Glass’ and ‘Wolves of the Calla’. As such, ‘The Wind through the Keyhole’ is regarded as book 4.5 as it takes place between the fourth and fifth novels. A film adaptation of the books is currently in development, staring Idirs Elba from Luther and Pacific Rim fame as protagonist Roland Deschain of Gilead. Matthew McConaughey portrays a primary antagonist and sorcerer named Walter or the Man in Black. The choice of Idris as Roland has been met with sharp criticism from the diehard fans of the series as it tampers with central character progression and the circumstances around certain individual’s relationships with others.
The plot resumes where ‘Songs of Susannah’ left off in which they protagonists are searching for the demon possessed and pregnant member of their team, Susannah. Jake Chambers, the youngest member of the heroes, Father Callahan, the main character of Salem’s Lot and Oy, a fictitious creature known as a billy-bumbler, enter a restaurant called the Dixie Pig. The New York based restaurant is infested with Vampiric creatures which the trio must fight their way through to save their friend and fellow gunslinger Susannah who is trapped in another dimension known as Fedic. In the other world of Fedic Susannah watches as Mia, the hermaphroditic demon that had possessed as well as impregnated her, is about to give birth to an unholy creature. The child birthed by Mia is partially human due to Roland’s forced copulation with the demonic Mia in the first book, and a partially mutating spideresque being fathered by the primary antagonist, the Crimson King also known as the Lord of the Spiders. The transforming boy, called Mordred Deschain, feasts on Mia shortly after the pregnancy is complete. Susannah, no longer possessed by Mia, is able to shoot and injure Mordred. This causes the infant to scuttle away for safety. The last part of the band of gunslingers, Roland and Eddie Dean, attempt to find the otherworld of Fedic from Maine in America. They eventually make their way to the destination and find Susannah in her right mind once more.
Once the heroes have been reunited in the other world, with the exception of Father Callahan who never made it past the Dixie Pig, they continue their long journey to the Dark Tower. Mordred Deschain, although severely wounded by Susannah Dean, continues to stalk and pursue the group with the hopes of killing Roland as per the Crimson King’s demand. The team continue on with their mission to save and reach the Dark Tower, which is of central importance to keeping the universe from ripping apart. The beams which hold up the tower are being attacked and weakened by telepathic humans called Breakers. Breakers, as revealed in the novel, use their supernatural powers to unravel the universe and it is up to the gunslingers to stop the fall of the beam by any means necessary. Several beams had already fallen prior to the beginning of the final novel which caused strange effects to ripple across the worlds such as time slowing down. Once the protagonists reach the station where all the Breakers are located, they prepare for a mass assault on the compound.
The Dark Tower series has a very bizarre story as I am sure you have realized after only glimpsing at the plot through my reviews. King combines the Western genre with fantastical elements to create a very unique story as well as some intriguing characters. The franchise is still ongoing in a sense despite the conclusive novel being released over a decade ago. As already mentioned, the film is currently underway and opens up possibilities of a new future for the Dark Tower property. Numerous graphic novels that focus on these characters are still being produced by Marvel comics and have been published throughout the years since they began in 2007. These graphic novels provide the reader with new adventures to explore, plots that revolve around a young Roland Deschain who’s earlier years were only partially mentioned in the original books. After having read the entire collection of Dark Tower novels, I am eager to experience some of Stephen King’s other novels.
Plot=7/10
Characters=8/10
Wording=8/10
Overall=8/10
Quote of the Day
You stupid woman.
Rene Artois
‘Allo ‘Allo
Rogue One
Greetings, Rogue One is a 2016 film and the first instalment in the Star Wars: Anthology series. The story serves as a prequel to a New Hope and offers a more complex view of the conflict between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire than the previous entries. Most of the surviving original cast are not involved in Rogue One bar a few cameo appearances from actors such as Anthony Daniels. Interestingly, GCI was used to bring back characters such as Grand Moff Tarkin who was originally played by Peter Cushing in A New Hope. This option had been used as Cushing has been dead for over two decades at the time of this film’s release. New actors and actresses were brought into the Star Wars universe to introduce original characters to the series. Among the main cast are Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso, Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, Ben Mendelsohn as Director Krennic, Mads Mikkelsen as Imperial scientist Galen Erso, James Earl Jones as the iconic voice of Darth Vader and Alan Tudyk as K-2SO. The music was composed by Michael Giacchino who orchestrates a soundtrack in a similar style to John Williams.
The film begins, with the iconic opening crawl notably absent, on an isolated farming planet in which research scientist Galen Erso and his family are in living. The world was chosen as part of a deliberate attempt to hide from the Empire’s clutches. Imperial forces lead by Director Orson Krennic, land on the planet once the scientist has been located. Krennic confronts Galen and attempts to convince him to continue constructing the superweapon named the Death Star. The negotiations take a violent turn when Lyra, Galen’s wife, is killed and his daughter Jyn goes into hiding. Galen is coerced into working for the Empire once more while Jyn remained unfound by Imperial Stormtroopers. The girl is eventually discovered by the extremist Rebel and Clone War veteran Saw Gerra as he had been informed by Galen about Krennic’s arrival in a prior scene. Jyn is taken under Saw’s wing for a number of years until they eventually go their separate ways before the next sequence begins 15 years later.
A defector from the Empire, Bodhi Rook, tries to smuggle a holographic message from Galen to the extremist Guerra. Saw is currently waging an armed revolt against the Imperial presence in the desert moon of Jedha. The message explains that Erso, as architect of the Death Star, had intentionally created a weak spot within the superweapon that could be exploited by the Rebel Alliance. Meanwhile an adult Jyn Erso is freed from an Imperial labour camp by rebel soldier Cassian Andor and K-2S0, a reprogrammed droid that used to work for the Empire. Andor, an intelligence officer for the resistance, was sent to save Jyn so that she could help the Rebels find her father and uncover more information about the Death Star.
I believed that the film was an admirable attempt of beginning the anthology series but it had several flaws that prevented me from classifying it as one of the best Star Wars films. Initially, I found the opening scenes which introduced several of the main characters to be poorly paced. I also thought that the majority of the characters had no real personality nor did they significantly progress as individuals through the storyline. There are also hints of potential romantic desire between Jyn and Andor during the finale but this is also the first indication that their relationship isn’t strictly platonic. K-2SO was the one character that stood out the most to me but I found that about half of his punchlines or snide remarks fell flat in its comedic attempts. On the positive side, I consider Galen’s installation of a weak spot in the Death Star to be an interesting technique that explained how the superweapon had such a fatal architectural flaw in the first place. Overall, the film was satisfactory in my opinion and that the last scene was by far the most interesting as audiences witnessed a glimpse of Darth Vader’s extensive and powerful abilities as a Sith Lord. Despite my reservations with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, I have high expectations for the next Anthology films centred on the iconic smuggling scoundrel Han Solo and feared intergalactic bounty hunter Boba Fett.
Plot=7/10
Characters=6/10
Special Effects=8/10
Overall=7/10
Quote of the Day
Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.
Ron Swanson
Parks and Recreation
Happy New Year: 2016 Review!
Greetings, it is the last day of the year once more and in accordance with tradition I am going to briefly review my favourite pieces of various entertainment media that I experienced or reviewed this year. In future, I intended to combine the New Year’s Eve and the Christmas Eve blog updates as part of my plans to produce less blog content. As always, the category winners did not necessarily have to be released this year but I will have had to have read it, watched it or played it in the last 12 months. In fact only one of the winners was released in 2016.
Television Show of the Year: Stranger Things
Series two of Fargo, an exciting prequel to the first season, narrowly lost to Netflix’s megahit Stranger Things. The story mainly follows a group of four friends growing up in a small American town called Hawkins during the 1980s. The group become entangled in supernatural events when one of the boys, named Will Byers, is attacked by a monster on his journey home alone. When it becomes apparent that Will is missing, the three remaining children search for their absent friend but encounter a strange and often silent girl where Will had vanished. It is soon revealed to the audience that the girl named El, an abbreviated form of eleven, has psychokinetic powers and claims to know of Will’s location. Due to the phenomenal success of the first series, a second season is already in development.
Game of the Year: Red Dead Redemption
Red Dead Redemption is a 2010 video game from Rockstar. It is a sequel to 2004’s Red Dead Revolver and a new instalment to the Red Dead series was announced in October of this year. The plot is centred on the flawed and charismatic protagonist John Marston, a former outlaw, who is attempting to capture his old criminal allies in the twilight era of the Wild West. He is motivated to track down his targets as the Federal Bureau of Investigations is holding Marston’s family as hostages until he completes his mission. There is also a very glitch filled but highly entertaining DLC entitled Undead Nightmare in which the American Frontier is infected by a zombie plague and John Marston must fight his way through the undead hordes.
Book of the Year: The Godfather
Published in 1969 and written by Italian-American novelist Mario Puzo, the Godfather is an iconic book about the Corleone Family. The material would later be adapted into a film, regarded as a cinematic masterpiece, and would spawn two sequel movies. While there are several interconnected plot lines, the story heavily revolves around Michael Corleone’s rise and ascension to the top of the criminal syndicate as the heir of the patriarch Vito. The plot begins to pick up speed after Don Vito is nearly assassinated due to his refusal to enter a narcotics based deal with another gangster. This attempted execution leads to a change in the Corleone leadership, at least temporarily, and commences Michael’s vengeful plans on the assailants.
Film of the Year: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
2015 saw Star Wars return to cinematic screens and was eagerly anticipated by moviegoers, especially diehard fans of the franchise, after the divisive prequel trilogy was released over 10 years ago. The Force Awakens provided a chance for the aging cast from the original trilogy to hand over the lead roles of the latest movie trilogy to the new comers in order to continue the Star Wars legacy. Unfortunately, the original main cast has become smaller with the loss of Kenny Baker and Carrie Fisher in 2016 alongside more minor actors in the series such as Erik Bauserfeld. I am aware that Fisher will be in Episode VIII as she had managed to finish her scenes before her passing away. The film is set long after the fall of the Galactic Empire in which the remnants of the imperial power, a movement known as the First Order begins to start a new conflict against the Resistance.
These four brief reviews are the last entry of the year but my blog will return in 2017 with a review of the latest Star Wars instalment Rogue One. What where you favourite pieces of media in 2016? I wish you a happy New Year’s Eve and a great 2017!
Quote of the Day
You know, no matter how much we fought, I've always hated watching you leave.
Princess Leia Organa
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
Merry Christmas 2016!
Greetings, as per tradition on my blog this is an update wishing you all the best in this festive season. 2016 will go down as historic year in which seismic, rebellious political shifts took place in Europe and the rest of the globe as well as events that shook the world. The year also took a vast numbers of valued celebrities, both old and young, from us as well as causing loss on a personal level. In blog related news, I will be writing less content on this blog as stated back in the month of May when we enter the New Year. I aim to be writing one entry a month, except for December, from 2017 onwards. The next blog update I write will be the last of this year’s activity. As usual, it will an entry focusing on the best entertainment that I had experienced or reviewed this year.
I am glad that you enjoyed my latest entry on Write Wise ‘The Misadventures of Murdoch and McKenzie: Time Zone Trouble.’ As for my future plans for Write Wise, I am planning a sequel for 2014’s Christmas entry ‘The Death and Life of Ellen Smith’ and have some thoughts on what the plot will contain. On last Christmas Eve I had suggested that I would return to the Guardian series in 2016. Obviously I haven’t gotten round to this yet and it is unlikely, although not impossible, that I will return to it in 2017. I would also like to write as fantasy story next year as this genre hasn’t really been touched by the Write Wise community, at least in a number of years anyway. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Quote of the Day
Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, kiss my ass. Kiss his ass. Kiss your ass. Happy Hanukkah.
Clark W. Griswold
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
