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Star Trek III - The Search for Spock (1984)
Star Trek III - The Search for Spock (1984)
1984 | Action, Sci-Fi
Why mess with a winning formula? Most of the original cast return for this next outing – with Robin Curtis stepping in for Kirstie Alley who “didn’t want to get typecast”. And the story continues from where we left off. But it all feels more forced this time. There are various absurdities in the story that make things very convenient! There are also things that make you say “hang on a minute” from Star Trek II. (For example, McCoy just stands there without objection in the funeral scene! Wouldn’t a “wait a minute” at that point have saved an AWFUL lot of grief??!).

Christopher Lloyd is wonderfully over the top as the Klingon commander, making a very believable baddie. And he really is a villain, allowing Shatner the opportunity to test his acting range (unfortunately, he singularly fails): “You Klingon bastard, you killed my son…. You Klingon bastard, you killed my son”.

Overall, it’s not a total disaster, but it all feels lacklustre and lazy after the glory of the Wrath of Khan. It makes you wonder what might have been if Nicholas Meyer had stayed at the helm to direct it instead of Nimoy.
  
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Butch Vig recommended Harvest Moon by Neil Young in Music (curated)

 
Harvest Moon by Neil Young
Harvest Moon by Neil Young
1992 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This is a record my mum loved so it was played in our house all the time when I was growing up. Harvest was a huge commercial success for Neil Young but the songwriting is also unbelievable. It's as good as any album that Bob Dylan ever put out or anything The Beatles did. To me it's one of those iconic records that will always stand the test of time - it's as good as it can get. There's not really one bad song on the record, it's almost so stripped down and gradual sounding at spots. There's nothing in the way - the production is spot on. Neil's singing is so beautiful and fragile at the same time. I really think it’s a perfect album. I recently saw a BBC session, I can't remember where, but Neil Young was playing at the Round House and there's this amazing performance. He's playing a lot of songs from ‘Harvest’ before it came out and he's just so comfortable - it's just him and either a piano or an acoustic guitar, and it's so unbelievable. When you can tap into songs that simple, without the need of any production or band or anything, you realise how good the songwriter is. That's why the record sounds so good - because the songs are flawless."

Source
  
    WdConnector

    WdConnector

    Entertainment and Utilities

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    The WdConnector help you to play your media files from your Cloud* on your iDevice. To this end,...

Far Cry (2008)
Far Cry (2008)
2008 | Action, Drama
4
2.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
On a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, a scientist named Dr. Krieger (Udo Kier) is conducting horrific genetic experiments in his secret facility.

Krieger is attempting to create the ultimate soldier for his financial backers and is not above using his own men as test subjects and fodder for his experiments as the morally lacking Krieger only cares about his work and his funding.

In the film “Far Cry”, Director Uwe Boll has taken the classic 3D shooter from Ubisoft and given it his own unique interpretation.

The film stars Til Schweiger as Jack Carver, a former special forces operative who spends his days as a boat captain chartering tourists on whale watching expeditions when he is not enjoying a beer and sleeping the day away.

Jack is hired by a determined investigative reporter named Valerie Cardinal (Emmanuelle Vaugier), to take her to the island so she can get further proof for her story about the bizarre experiments taking place on the island. Valerie has a personal interest in the story as her uncle Max (Ralf Moeller), is one of those stationed at the island facility.

While Jack is reluctant to go near the island he does agree to anchor of the coast and pick up Valerie in a few hours. Of course things do not go as planned as Valerie is captured and Jack’s boat is destroyed leaving him believed to be dead by the Doctor and his forces.

Jack is not one to let this go, and rescues Valerie and looks to find a way off the island while avoiding the ever present troops. The stubborn Valerie is unwilling to leave until she has the information she needs for her story and ignores the dangers.

As if the Doctor and his soldiers were not trouble enough, the super soldiers have escaped and have caused various factions within the Dr’s forces to turn against one another which results in a pitched battle between the factions and the super soldiers.

What follows is a lot of action that is hampered by a weak plot and bad dialogue, and sadly very disappointing monsters.

The leads in the film have very little chemistry with one another and the characters are wafer thin, even by action movie standards. There are attempts at romance and playful banter that fizzle badly leaving only the action sequences to carry the film. Sadly while they are decent enough, especially a good car chase, they cannot overcome the plot issues and the creatures that do not live up to the hype.

Boll has taken a step back here as his recent films have shown progress especially the solid
“Seed” and “1968 Tunnel Rats”. When I visited the set I learned that the production was not allowed to use large aspects of the game and that aside from names, title, and settings, they had to create a new story that was inspired by the game. While the effort is there, the results come up lacking and do not do justice to the game, premise, or talent assembled.
  
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Michael Mitcheson (16 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Apex Legends in Video Games

Feb 27, 2019  
Apex Legends
Apex Legends
2019 | Shooter
Legends, pacing, dev support, squad / team work, ping system. (0 more)
Weapon balance, minor bugs/glitches, apex packs, squad / teamwork. (0 more)
Solid game but will it survive the long run.
Apex legends is another battle royal game that has taken the world by storm. Some would say its a watered down genre however apex legends redefines the format adding its own spin on the mode.

Graphically it is stunning. A good amount of fauna, desert, buildings and caverns to showcase different textures whilst not quite being as cartoon like as fortnite.

The player handling is fantastic with vaulting, sliding and using zip lines. It does not feel clunky but rather smooth and fluid.

Sound is fantastic. Weapons sound so good and you can distinguish weapons prior to a fight just from hearing them. Footsteps alter from the terrain that is being ran on and dulled by crouching.


Currently the game is 3 person squads and has a max player count at 60 lower than the 4 person squad and 100 player count. This works well for the pace of the game and map size. You are never too far away from getting in the action should you wish after surviving the initial 5 minute onslaught for areas and that sweet precious loot.

You'll notice I put squad / team work in both positive and negative. The positive is it semi forces you to land as a squad. This can be cancelled by those who aren't the jump master and want to go rogue. I have noticed this but not is often as other games of the genre. 3 players allows for a good amount of mutual support, mixing and matching legend abilities to secure a win and having a diverse amount of weapons to cover all ranges. I have also negatived it due to the rogues, item/weapon/ammo stealing, lack of pinging (more on this after) and absolute lack of microphone communication. That last one is not a fault of the game or dev but merely an observation for the ps4 platform.

The ping system is the single point that makes this game fantastic. If you have a child or a broken mic you can opt to ping. Let's travel here, I'm watching here, enemy sighted and so forth. If you're not talking use the feature it's fantastic and also ends the classic e emy over there, where? There group conversation.

Legends have unique abilities but in a nutshell play what you like. Pick a character that has perks that fit your style. You can pick up that elusive 'dub' in any combination of legends. I still haven't settled. On one but enjoy 3-4 that I switch around. Its also good to have that incase someone rudely steals your character.

Minor bugs so far that I've encountered are falling through the floor (now patched allegedly and in fairness it hasn't happened to me in a while), items fallingb, through building/ dropship floor, death boxes dissapearing and falling through floors. The devs are however extremely good currently at updating and listening to the community.

Weapon balance is pretty damn bad (personal opinion). Peacekeeper is a beast shotgun at close range and mid range. The range for me needs dropping and that's prior to finding the attachment hop ups to strengthen it. The Mozambique is just a dreadful shotgun that you will find left on the floor to rust by just about everyone.

Very quickly on microtransactions. They are cosmetic only. You can warn everything including new legends in time but prepare to grind. Real money does not need to be used.

Time will tell if this game will survive the test of time as the devs release the battle pass and future content. Currently I'd give it 7/10. Solid game and worth a try by anyone. It is free after all.