The Mighty May Update

It's not every day that I give up lounging around furiously tapping at my keypad and munching on Jaffa Cakes, but today I ended up lounging around at Sarah's house instead, furiously patting the dog and munching on onion rings with ten others. It was her birthday so, here's her little mention.

I've been lazy recently and forgot to update after I went to see Zodiac, so I'll give that a newly formatted review in a moment along with the glorious Half-Life 2: Episode 1 on PC.95%
"Masterful"
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Zodiac
It was him! No, wait...

Put simply, Zodiac isn't what you expect to see. If you're looking for a modern day, fairly simple slasher flick with a very slightly unique angle, you're looking in the wrong place. Zodiac is in fact a tangle of interesting developments and twists that holds fairly firmly and doesn't let go for around two and a half hours, which, arguably is a rather long time for today's standards yet it's two and a half hours that'll keep you suspended in thought.

The film's protagonist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal (The Day After Tomorrow) is a local newspaper's cartoonist who soon becomes so wound up in the whole mystery that he eventually devotes most of his life to solving the crime, and we only truly find out until the very last moment of the film. The acting is pretty damn well played and the writing lacks in some areas but is otherwise convincing. There's some comedy thrown in amongst the web of lies and constant chasing, and it works to effect.

However, make sure you watch it at home; the length is quite frustrating when your bladder's bursting. Also, I'd only recommend it to people with patience and relatively broad minds.

72%
"Curious"
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Half-Life 2: Episode One
Ruddy hell, it's back!

There's only one thing to say about the Half-Life saga. It RULES. And Episode One is no exception.
Ok, excessive formatting and ranting about how great it is over. Actually, it's not over. I love Episode one. I decided that as a end of term treat I'd buy it via Steam for a drastically reduced and reasonable price of £5. I downloaded it, plugged in and I didn't let go for around four hours, the length of the full game on average. It starts with the result of the aftermath of the main game, with one of Earth's enslaved city's main power core malfunctioning thanks to the game's lead protagonist and player, Gordon Freeman, leader of the rebel re- Oh, why am I bothering. The story is too hugely inventive and masterfully crafted for me to explain, but A fine gentleman by the name of Chan K has compiled the entire saga's storyline here.

The game is a rip-roaring rampage of rebellion and waging war that never ceases to amaze; at one point, I'm navigating a beautifully crafted monolith of a citadel, the next I'm running through darkened suburban car parks infested with raging zombies, and then later I'm taking down a war of the worlds style three spider tanks (striders) solely with an RPG. You are assisted by the scarily human-like Alyx, daughter of Eli Vance, yo- I'm sorry, I'm doing it again. I just love the story so much, it drives me to blabber on and on. The graphics looks stunning even if they're running on my fairly simple PC, the whole system feels wonderful and I was drawn in all the way; I don't think I can actually wait for for Episode two but at release prices, I'm going to have to wait until it was lowered like this.

95%
"Masterful"
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Whew, that's alot of reviewing out of my system... I could have said alot more about each but It's quarter past eleven and I'm watching the fifty films to see before I die, which has inspired me to create my own list. Except I've narrowed it down just a tad. So here's my five films you should see and probably haven't.

5. Braindead
It's gotta be said, this film isn't for the faint of heart; at it's time it was the goriest movie ever created if you ignore underground cult shockers like the Guinea Pig series. It's one bad ass horror B movie.

4. Shallow Grave
Can't stress enough how this is the perfect thriller; money, eccentric characters, a dead body, a twist ending... Perfection of mystery for me.

3. The Thing
Ok, so It was quite popular. But alot of my generation havn't seen it and it still remains one of my favourite films, most notably because of the bafflingly effective technology... No CGI here, all anamatronic monsters.

2. The Warriors
Classic cult 70's film about street gangs that is beautifully choreographed and should be viewed by all.

1. Without a doubt the best film of 2006 and my favourite film of all time, Children of Men is an instant classic that I'll never forget.


God, I'm chirpy today. Well, that's all from me for now. Peace out.