Ah end of year time. Time for leftovers from Christmas, throwing out ten tons of wrapping paper, and thinking of the best and the worst of the year that was. Today we get the bottom 10 movies that I reviewed this year. However, this list comes with a few notes. First I have only reviewed 60 movies this year so there is less of a sample size. Second I typically get movies from the Red Box on my work weekend so sometimes the pickings are slim being the weekend and the whole world is out getting movies. Since it seems that some of the better titles, for whatever reason, seem to not be in there as long I am sure there are STILL movies that I wanted to see this year that I just have not. Lastly, I tend to find at least something redeeming about most movies I see so it tends to be hard for me to put a movie down completely. There is always SOMEONE who will like a movie no matter how bad. A movie has to truely suck for me to say so.  So remember this is only a list from movies I have reviewed this year and not a comprehensive list from every movie released. Without any furthur delay here is the BOTTOM TEN Red Box Reviews of ’10. (some spoilers below as well)

10. Youth in Revolt– This Michael Cera flick isn’t so much bad as it is underwhelming.

With him in it I expected so much more and it was just a bit too slow at times as well.

Good thing he has a movie on my TOP TEN as well… stay tuned!

9. The Ghost Writer– This movie also makes the list for being a bit of a bore-fest even for a political flick.

8. Shutter Island— Now we are starting to get a bit controversial. One would think DiCaprio+Scorsese+Kingley= Good. Well it doesn’t.Throw in Marty and the gang trying to be a bit too twist-ish with the plot and you have quite the disappointment.

7. The Kids Are All Right– Take out the sex scenes and all you have is a Lifetime movie of the week.

6. Harry Brown–Again not so much bad, it’s that it’s a disappointment. Michael Caine as a bad ass, yes please. Poorly done and slow, no thanks.

5. Splice– You had me interested all the way up till the creature/Dren starts having sex with every major character. Not sure the movie really needed to go there. A good start turns into twist after twist to campy dumb ending.

4. Remember Me– HEY speaking of DUMB ENDINGS! We get a good character piece about two college kids figuring out how to get along with their respective Dad’s and make everything work, and BAM, you throw in 9/11 for the ending. Piss poor and gimmicky. Take away the awful ending and you have a movie which would be off this list and actually recomendable.

3. Sex and the City 2— Now we start to get to the bad stuff. Snozzefest which is just 5 episodes which should have been on HBO and combine them into a movie. Feels like a take on the Brady’s go to Hawaii, just insert the girls from SATC, and the Middle East. YUK

2. MacGruber– Oh MAcGruber and your likable cast. Oh how I wanted to like you, I really did. But the jokes and dialogue (while funny—at times)were too forced,all to raunchy, and  were just plain BAAAADDDD.

1. Operation Endgame– It’s not too often I tell everyone who will listen to stay the hell away from a movie that is not even worth 1$, but this was just plain God awful. It even has a cast that at first glance has a ton of potential. I can find good things to say about most any movie but I don’t think I can find anything about this pile of crap.

So there you have it. The bottom 10 Red Box Reviews of ’10. Coming up soon will be the Top 10 movies I reviewed this year. I hope you enjoy both lists

–GJ

Well, I have been running this blog for roughly a little over 6 months and it has been a blast. Rants, reviews, thoughts and just random stuff has been awesome to just send out to the interwebs galore. I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of my readers and followers personally and to say Merry Christmas to all! And also happy holiday’s/enjoy whatever it is you celebrate if you do not celebrate Christmas.

I will leave you today with a quick video I found from Bioware via Massivley and Gamespot. It’s a first look of some gameplay of the Republic Trooper in SWTOR. It looks good and could be fun to play, but they are going to have to make it REAL fun if they are going to put a dent in the gazillions of people who will be playing some form of Jedi right off the bat.

Merry Christmas!

This is a bunch of tips for people who know the basics of Archaeology but need some more guidance in doing it. It’s not a total “guide” b/c I am no pro at it and have not gotten to 525 yet. But I have put two characters to 400+ and have a few tips on making it better for you and helping you max your skill ups, and min your time doing so.

It’s no secret that Arch. is a time sink. To me, it’s a FUN time sink and quite addictive and almost like gambling b/c of the way you can get rares and at later levels EPICS. Yet in all reality it’s just a time sink. But here are the tips.

1. Don’t do it until you are late 70’s or at least 80. Make sure you have at least epic flying (and flying in old world). Both of these will make sure you get around quicker and also make sure you don’t have to worry about monster bothering you (until 375 when you will be in Northred and might actually have to do more then one shot things). Being able to one hit things keeps the time flying.

1a Always dig again where you last found a fragment. It might sound dumb but sometimes you will get ALL 3 spawns in one area and when you do it will be GLORIOUS! (Yep it’s the little things in life that make you happy)

2. Do not complete ANY artifacts until skill 80-100. It’s roughly in this area that digging for fragments will become grey and you won’t get any more skill ups for it. The only way from here on to skill up is completing relics (5 for each and apparently from a hot fix today more for rares). Plus it’s a fun way to complete a bunch at one time and you will surely get a rare or two and end up with a couple of pets for sure.

3. Auction off any Keystones for the races you get. They normally will give you +12 fragments of the races you find them for if you use them but for now, and I assume not much longer, they are going for about 200g each on the Auction house. Get the cash while you can! Later on when they are only going for 10g at most, might as well use them yourself b/c it;s not worth the money vs time to sell them.

4. Colors while digging. I am sure most people know the whole close (green), not so close (yellow), and no where near (Red), but I have come up with a bit more of a system to it. I start most dig sites on an edge. If I get a red then I fly to the other edge of the site in the direction it says. Yellow I use about a 8-10 sec count while walking. Green is about one cooldown of the dig ability, which is about 5 seconds. From those you should be pretty close and in faster time. It is just the way I have found that works well.

5. The levels vs Continents. 1-300 “Old World”. Kalimdor and Easter Kingdoms are diggable. At 300 you can go to Outlands. At 375 you can go to Northrend. At 450 you can dig in some of the cataclysm areas. However the Cataclysm zones are back in the old world and will be randomly spawned so sometimes you will have to go thru some of the lower level areas and dig before you get a cataclysm zone spawning.

6. The last and probably the most obvious one is plan ahead. You will be on flight paths will be used constantly so while you are killing time, look at your map and make a good plan. Try and keep to the dig sites that are close to each other. Even if you know it will be a Troll site and you are working on a Fossil rare artifact just do it. You will be happy you did later.

Archaeology is my new addiction and I hope these tips and tricks will help you speed thru and get to the epics and rare pets sooner!

Mail me if you have any other things you would like me to talk about or have any WoW questions to Ask The Geekjock!

The Other Guys (2010– 107mins) W. Ferrell, M. Wahlberg 

  Usually when we get the combo of Adam McKay,director, and Will Ferrell,star, we get comedic gold. Talladega Nights, Anchorman, and even the underappreciated Step Brothers. Here we get them plus Mark Wahlberg in what should on paper be gold but ends up being probably a little bit of a tarnished silver. It still has funny parts and it’s an ok movie, but it really misses it’s potential and ultimately falls flat. It should have been shined up a bit and made into the movie it could have been.

Ferrell and Wahlberg play 2 misfit cops in the vein of the Odd Couple. Ferrell is the clean cut straight laced clueless accounting cop, and Wahlberg is the bad ass take no crap cop. With these 2 actors playing these two character types it should be laughs every two seconds. And for the 1st 15 mins or so, thanks to the Samuel L. Jackson, and Duane “The Rock” Johnson cameos it is that funny. After that, it becomes repetitive jokes that are only funny once and waiting for SOMETHING to finally come along that will make us laugh. These 2 misfits stumble upon a huge corruption plot to steal money from the state lottery, but they have no idea they have. The real cops and robbers plot is kinda useless b/c we don’t really care about that, bottom line is we want to see these two act off of each other and make us laugh. Just more then they do.

Verdict–> Anchorman and Talladega Nights should be in everyone’s movie library, The Other Guys should be rented by everyone for 1$ and not thought of again until it’s on TNT every month or so and you can catch the 20 mins of funny when you want to. They should probably make another so they can get a better script b/c I REALLY want this to be great but it’s barely better then ok.

Charlie St. Cloud (2010—99 mins) Z. Efron, C. Tahan, A. Crew 

In this heart warming cry-fest, the amazingly likable Zac Efron plays Charlie St. Cloud, a sailing prodigy who is has to deal with the tragedy of losing his little brother in a car accident they both were in. The brothers were very close and had a pact to practice baseball every day at a certain time for one hour. Due to this “pact” Charlie is able to still see his brother and talk to him every day in the woods near the cemetery. Charlie unable to deal with the loss of his brother or losing him any further takes a job as the cemetery caretaker to continue this daily tradition. The twist comes when a woman comes into Charlie’s life and puts this special Ghost to brother relationship in jeopardy.

It’s actually a bit of a touching story (and pretty good one) and will have any and all women who watch it in tears. It prolly will pull at the strings of anyone who has kids altogether as well, but at heart it’s a love story. It’s not to difficult to find some of the twists in it before they happen but it doesn’t take too much away from the story. It’s shot well, acted well and isn’t too long either to wear out it’s welcome. I only have one gripe about the story/plot in that I would have liked to have Charlie and his love interest have some more interaction when they were younger as it would have set up the story a bit more and made the connection at the end a bit more “believable”, watch the movie and you will know why that word is in quotes.

Verdict—> Great for a group of chicks who want to sit around and cry and watch Zac Efron. But it really is Efron who makes the movie a bit better b/c even as a shallow-ish movie he’s just a likable kid. Guys won’t mind it b/c hey when women cry it makes for a good cuddle movie, but it’s not a guys night out movie at all. If she wants to watch it, don’t fret it’s not bad.

Jonah Hex (2010 81 mins) J. Brolin, M. Fox, J. Malkovich  

Here is a perfect example of a movie that got blasted, and that is prob. an understatement, by the critics and did awful in the theaters but really isn’t half bad. As a 1$ rental it’s actually a decent movie. My main complaint is it’s only 81mins and that violates the GeekJock’s # 1 rule of movies. Rule #1 states that ALL feature films must be at least 90 mins in nature. Exceptions to the rule include animated films and documentaries.

   Jonah Hex is a former confederate soldier who became a rebel after disobeying direct orders from an evil general who was hell-bent on chaos and killing of innocents. This General Turnbull (Malkovich) then hunted Hex down, torchered him,left him disfigured on the brink of death and killed his family in front of his eyes. Hex while on the brink of death is saved by the supernatural world and turned into a quasi-magical half dead renegade hell-bent on revenge and bringing the unjust to justice. He’s quite the anti-hero, not afraid of killing evil-doers, or making humorous quips while he does so.

  The story revolves around Hex being tasked by the US gov’t to stop Turnbull who has acquired a weapon of mass destruction and is going to turn Washington to dust and bring the country to it’s knees. On his quest he enlists the help of a former girlfriend/call girl (Fox) to do little more then look good and make funny remarks.

Bottom line—> I will cut out alot of the bull here and say it starts off a bit odd. It takes the approach of showing you quite quickly how Hex becomes supernatural in a mix comic book type of animation and real action. It’s weird but not bad so I am sure that will turn some people off. But it’s a bit short (like the movie) so you won’t get too turned off by this. Before you know it it’s time for some real action and the movie gets rolling. It’s a pretty typical anti-hero stops the bad guy movie with some heavy supernatural elements thrown in. I am not sure why so many people hated it unless they just got so mad that they paid full price for less then 90 mins of a movie, then they are justified. I, for one, thought it was entertaining and think it’s good enough to recommend.

Verdict—> Like I mentioned above it’s not bad. I recomend this b/c it’s better then anyone gives it credit for. Be advised, it’s supernatural and based off a comic book so don’t expect realism. Bring that expectation into it and you won’t be surprised by it and it will land better on your movie tatse buds. Like I say with a bunch of movies don’t take it seriously and you will be entertained. More of a guys movie for sure (b/c at very worst we get to see Megan Fox pre-assload of cosmetic surgury to the near Jolie-ness that she is now, and she looks great), so we will like it, but chicks might be able to sit thru it b/c again—81 mins!!! Def worth 1$ rental.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010—112 mins) M. Cera, M.E. Winstead

   Let’s rewind about a year ago from today. The movie hype machine was in full swing. EVERYONE was on fire about how good the movie adaptation of the popular comic about Scott Pilgrim would be. We never heard the end of it on many outlets from G4 to entertainment tonight. The Buzz was buzzing. Well then go forward to the release. Not great word of mouth about the movie is out there and it BOMBS. Well b/c of this word of mouth I was a bit skeptical as to if I was going to like it or not.

  It’s Kookie/quirkie , it’s a bit out there, it’s got a crazy premise, but make no mistake about it, IT FUCKING ROCKS. This movie is laughs abound and actually has a heart. I am actually embarrassed that I didn’t realize until the end credits that  Edgar Wright directed it. He who is of the masterpiece Sean of the Dead fame. If I realized that I would have known that I was going to like this for sure. Remember this is not a movie for those with no sense of humor. It’s a bit slapstick at times and that’s what we look forward to. Once a sight gag is done we want the next one to make us chuckle. Once one guest cameo is done, bring on the next, it just never gets old!

Ok a bit of the plot. Scott Pilgrim (Cera)  is a 23 year old guy in a band. He’s a bit of a hipster crossed with a geek. He’s still a bit hung up on an ex-girlfriend who broke his heart a year ago and thus has a bit of a rebound relationship with a 17 year old girl named Knives. That is, until he stumbles across the girl of his dreams, Ramona (Winstead). But before these two can ride into the sunset, happily ever after, Pilgrim must defeat Ramona’s sever evil Ex’s in mortal combat. Yeah, like I said a bit out there but worth every second of cheese. It is made in the syle which I can only explain as action video game crossed with a comic book crossed with slap-stick comedy.  Which gives you exactly the type of person who will love it, but I think anyone who likes to laugh will at least enjoy it.

Verdict—>  This movie plain old rocks. If you are a guy go buy it now, if you are a chick, go get it for your BF/husband etc. For even further of who will like it, if you liked any of these movies—> Sean of the Dead, Zombieland (sorry no zombies here but these 2 movies remind me of the slapstick humor that I loved in Pilgrim), Hot Fuzz, then you will like this. There are prolly better examples then those but for now I am blank.

If buying it is too much of a commitment then GO RENT IT TONIGHT at the redbox, what’s the worst for you to lose, just 1$. Enjoy, and remember the Geekjock sent you!

The Kids Are All Right (2010— 106 mins) J. Moore, A. Bening, M. Ruffalo 

The Kid’s Are All Right the dramedy with Moore, and Bening is  not to be confused with Everybody’s Fine the amazingly depressing drama with Robert De Niro. The only thing they really have in common is they are billed as comedic type movies. At least this one provides us with some laughs at times. The movie is about a lesbian couple Jules (Moore) and Nic (Bening), who each have had a child in their relationship via a sperm doner Paul(Rufdalo). The kids who are older teenagers and begin to get curious as to whom their doner father actually is. And such Ruffalo is found and he conveniently lives nearby. Upon coming into their lives thing are brought to the surface of all four of their lives. The son Laser, rethinks his friendship with a douche bag boy, the Daughter Joni has questions about her future in college, and the couple are not sure who they are any more to their selves or each other.

   The story more revolves around the triangle of the two women and Paul. It’s not a true love triangle per-se but it is one in which Paul is a certain wedge to them. Nic is the work-a-holic OB doc who must have control of everything and he exemplifies something she has no control over. To Jules, he is a breathe of fresh air and a way to help start her landscaping company by working on his back yard. From here you can imagine where the predictable plot goes and up until it all of a sudden decides to wrap up, it’s entertaining. It’s not so much a bad ending as it is what I think to be an artificial one. It seems they wanted to wrap up all the stories but had to throw them all together as one.

All actors do a good job in the movie including the children Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) and Josh Hutcherson (Journey to the Center of the Earth). Moore plays the same character she always does. A headstrong sexual character who we always know is some part lesbian. The only one who seems out of her element but is convincing is Bening. She takes no crap from anyone and has a certain edge to her at all times. Ruffalo might be the only one who seems to mail it in at some parts in the movie, almost seeming bored for most of it.

Verdict—> It’s just an average at best as a drama and not funny enough to be considdered a comedy. I can’t give it a huge recomendation b/c it just won’t appeal to enough people, the story is just not compelling enough.  If your wife just HAS to watch it, you won’t think the story is that bad so don’t worry but I wouldn’t go out of my way for a couples night or date night. Grab it only if she is with you and asks for it, other then that pretend you didn’t see it in the box.

A few weeks ago I gave some initial thoughts on Halo:Reach. Now that I have completed the game and played a bunch more multiplayer I figured I would give a finalized review. A note before I start that I might repeat some of what I mentioned in the first impressions so my apologies ahead of time if this bothers you. And admittedly there are some features that I did not get to play and likely won’t very soon (like firefight, co-op campaign,arena) so that’s also why I don’t give grades at all but just my verdict on things.

Campaign mode

   This time through the Halo world, you are not the fabled Master Chief but as your own member of a special ops. team. You are able to set your own color and some of the looks initially in game which carries thru to cut scenes quite well. I know it’s old and easy to do but for me little things like this make the game sooo much better to enjoy. Cut scenes where I can say “HEY THAT’S ME!!” make you warm and fuzzy. As you gain points in the game (and online multi player) you can unlock upgrades to these looks cosmetically and they carry over here as well so that’s a nice positive as well.  You are dispatched onto the world of Reach, which has been colonized by the humans for years but is having reports of widespread unrest. Long story short the Covenant are here and they are NOT happy. That’s the basic plot and other then a few minor twists here and there it doesn’t vary a whole lot. To be honest I didn’t care. I don’t need undead or mutants or another life form running around to be happy. Halo= killing Covenant and that’s A O K with me. The story is great, but the only downside I have is that I finished the game in what amounts to a little over 10 hours of game play. When I originally asked a games store employee how he liked it when it came out and he said “It’s only about 6 hours long but that is long for games these days so I didn’t mind, but it’s good” I was taken back a bit. Long for games these days? WTF? What happened to the days of games being 40+ hours long? Is that only for RPG’s now? Ugh, just not enough time. I had so much fun in Reach that I wanted it to last forever, but it was taken from me too quickly, and I am just not one of those people who can play thru a game like this multiple times on harder difficulties.

Controls/Gameplay

It’s a basic Halo game. The controls haven’t changed much and it’s easy to pick up and enjoy. The guns and armour abilities are fun and easy to get used to. I just can’t get enough of flying the jetpack around some maps and using the sniper rifle to take out big baddies from afar. There are some new vehicles which take some getting used to at first but the missions do a good job of introducing them to you so you are not completely lost when using them in multiplayer. The new outer space missions are a great addition to the game and really give a good dogfight in space feel to it. They don’t overstay their welcome either b/c just about the time you start to grow tired of them the game switches back to the bread and butter FTS gameplay.

Online/Multi-player

Bungie really has a knack for multiplayer. There are a ton of great maps online, and a ton of great gameplay options. Grow tired of simple kill everyone of “slayer”? Well there is team capture the flag or time control modes. You can navigate the online interface easily and the community isn’t all that bad. I didn’t encounter too many jerks while playing even in the matches where our team was getting destroyed by the other team. Sure there will always be immaturity online but I found that Halo had less then some other games out there. The real jewel is the stats Bungie keeps on their site. Go to their official web site and you can sift thru all sorts of multi-player stats for yourself or anyone else you know the gamer tag of. It could easily keep you busy for hours seeing how good someone is (or how bad I am) or just trying to judge the tendencies of some players as well. Great job Bungie!

Verdict

It’s a great game no doubt. The buy or not to buy definitely depends on your play style. If you are someone who just wants to play the campaign in solo or co-op when a friend is in town for a few days, then just rent it. It’s too short to spend 60$ to own just for the main game alone. If you want to do the main story PLUS multiplayer, then by all means buy it. For as bad as I am at online play I still love it and can’t get enough of it. I hope also to one day grab a friend or child of mine to play the campaign co-op as well, as I am sure it will add a whole new level of fun to the whole thing. Please Bungie or someone put out more of these or BIG BIG downloadable content/map packs b/c this is a keeper and I want to see more!

Friday night in a shootout in Edmonton, Oilers Rookie Linus Omark, playing in his 1st NHL game, got to do what 99% of us dream of, participate in the shootout. Whether it be adrenaline or creativity he did a spin-o-rama after getting the puck at center ice, came down faked a slap shot and put the puck 5-hole on Dan Ellis. When you look at it (see below) it’s a great shot and just an exciting play. Well the Tampa players are crying foul. To this I say, quit your bitching, it’s hockey, if you want to complain then stop the puck to show them up. If it’s ridiculous and you save it, laugh at him all you want, but for now tell the kid “nice goal” and get ready for the next shot. Remember you’re Dan Ellis, and you suck, shut your mouth and try and get your save % to a still shitty 88% and maybe we might listen to what you have to say, but for now you are just another crappy goalie embarrassedby a forward who is just better then you. These guys know full well the shootout is about speed this kid did a move to generate more speed so sue him. Do baseball players complain when a pitchers delievery hides the ball for an extra second? Do basketball players complain about a little trash-talking? No, they play the game and win, and actions speak louder then words. Go home and pull up your skirts Lightning!

  Don’t let the losing players put you down kid. Bring highlight goals like this to the league, it’s exciting and it brings attention to the game. We don’t have to see highlights of minor league, juniors, or even 8 year olds in between periods at games, now we can see real NHLers do things to bring good attention to the sport.

So next time someone tells you or anyone it’s disrespectful to the game when you just scored… Tell them to stop the goal then they can say what they want. For now cry me a river Lighthing, you are the ones disrespecting the game by being a bunch of cry-babies!!