RevuBlog.com - Reviews across the board!

Just recently two ‘cop’ shows (both US) started up. I don’t usually watch this genre, but both of these, for some reason, caught my eye.

They have similarities, so I thought I’d do a double review/comparison.

First up we have Covert Affairs. This follows the story of Annie Walker (player by Piper Perabo), who’s training for the CIA is cut short when Langley decide they need her language skills for a mission, despite her lack of experience.

Luckily Annie is a super-smart agent, with top scores all around, and, of course, succeeds in her task, gaining the sometimes grudging respect of the others in the office.

The back story here is that the love of her life, whom she met on holiday, is some kind of rogue super-agent. How he fits in exactly I’m not yet sure, as the story arc is still progressing.

The episodes so far have been reasonably enjoyable, though they snap a bit too nicely into place for my liking. Still, we have to make exceptions.

The complications here come in the shape of inter-departmental/agency rivalry and the fact she has to keep her real job of spy a secret from her sister, whom she lives with. Thus far it’s not been such a big problem for her, but no doubt that will come into play a little bit further down the line.

Overall Covert affairs is still fresh enough to be quite enjoyable.

Our second show has quite a few similarities to Covert Affairs. Rookie Blue features a bunch of new cops, straight out of the academy, settling into police life in New York.

The story focuses mainly on Andy McNally (played by Missy Peregrym, whom I last saw in the much lamented Reaper.)

Rookie Blue focuses slightly less on ‘the job’ and more on the interactions and relationships of the characters within the show, and how they develop and react in the fairly high pressure environment.

Andy, being a fairly attractive young lady, quickly gets embroiled in a bit of a love triangle with two of her male workmates, something that complicates her life of course.

Whilst I’m certainly no cop, heaven fore-fend, the show seems to also try and be a little more realistic than Covert Affairs, something made a little easier by the more ‘everyday’ aspect of the police officer’s job, and I like this. As a result it’s more believable, and the cast play their roles well.

Covert Affairs vs. Rookie Blue? My vote goes to the Blue!

The Good Guys is a semi-spoof comedy cop show on its first season run, and my money’s on it being cancelled soon.

Why? Because I like it.

The show follows two cops, one is straight laced, by the book and the other a washed up has-been.

Jack Bailey (Colin Hanks) is the young and eager cop who, by dint of ‘following the rules’ a little too precisely, is lumbered with Dan Stark (Bradley Whitford) and assigned small and unimportant crimes.

Of course, these small crimes happen to lead to bigger ones, and plunge the ‘odd couple’ into dire situations. During the course of these events we discover, possibly to our surprise, that the supposedly useless 80s cop, Dan Stark, is actually a pretty switched on good guy. His ‘problem’ is that he’s stuck in the past, when the law flew by the seat of their pants. (As someone who can just about remember this era, one could argue that it was no worse off because of it. Still…)

Stark is a drunk womanizer sure, but he’s a likable guy non the less, and out to do the right thing. Along the way he teaches his younger colleague a thing or two as well.

At first glance, and even subsequent glances, there’s nothing really original here. The ‘odd couple’ cop scenario isn’t new of course, and there are many other clichés along the way. There’s only really one surprise, and that’s that the show is actually enjoyable. We soon learn that the clichéd parts are done on purpose, built in, so to speak, and that makes them something we can pass over to a large degree. If you’re old enough, you’ll pick up some references to old shows dropped in here and there too.

It’s not wildly original, and it’s not going to win any prizes, but The Good Guys is worth a watch.

Chinaren rating: 5/6.

Official Fox site here.

A program I’ve always been a big fan of, Futurama, has returned with a bang to the screen.

Season 6 of this space comedy, made by the same people who do the, now overlly tired, Simpsons, has made it onto the screen after several years semi-absense.

I say semi-absense because, since the last episode of Season 5, there have been several movie-length ‘epsiodes’ to fill the void.

One reason I do so enjoy this show is the total irreverance it shows. Theere are many subtle digs at society and various people and happenings going on today in there, much like the Simpsons used to do, back when that show was still funny.

If you’re not up to speed on Futurama, it centers around Fry, a bumbling pizza delivery boy, who accidentally gets frozen for a thousand years, waking up in the year 3000.

Somehow he ends up working for the (in)famous Professor Farnsworth, a genius, if absent minded, inventor who also runs a space delivery business.

Fry’s ‘sidekick’ comes in the form of a morally bankrupt robot called Bender. ‘Bite my shiny metal ass’ is what he says.

The love interest is Leela, a mutant cyclops human with a vsicous streak.

There are countless other characters too, and I’m happy to say that the story line remains intact as the show goes on.

If you want wacky, check out Futurama!

You can downlaod torrents of the latest season here.

Well, season three of Breaking Bad has reached episode 12, so I thought I’d give an update of how we’re doing so far.

Recap:

Scientist turned science teacher, Walt Whitman, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Desperate to ensure his family would have enough money when he died, he teamed up with an junkie ex-student of his and started making meth.

Due to Walt’s science background, his produce quickly became the product of choice, and the money started to roll in.

Whilst his drug trade flourished, his home life started to fail, torn apart by the pressures of his illness and the need to keep what he was doing a secret from his family, especially as his brother in law is a DEA agent!

At the end of Season two, his home life was on the rocks. At the same time, he’d just made a huge score with a ‘Mr.Big’ drug distributor. His relationship with his partner in crime, Jesse, had hit a rough spot too, due to a number of factors, including the death of Jesse’s girlfriend from a drug overdose.

Thus it was all happening at the end of S2, and I was revved up for the start of season three.

…and I was (initially) disappointed.

The early episodes of season three, whilst interspersed with the classic ‘Shock and Awesome’ action and ‘political’ maneuverings of all parties, was too slow.

The series has always shown both sides of the story, the drug action and the home life. However, the home side was featured prominently in the early episodes, possibly rather too much, as it was mostly fairly subdued stuff.

Yet stick with it! In the past three or four episodes the Breaking Bad of old has started to rear it’s classic head.

Spoiler alert!

Jesse and Walt now manufacture meth on a huge scale for Mr. Big, and Walt’s wife has even started to play a role, seduced a little by the money and guilt both.

At the end of episode twelve though, Walt turns a violent and shocking corner, one that it’s going to be hard to extracate himself from, and will be sure to upset Mr. Big. [/spoiler]

How will this pan out?

Stay tuned!

You can download BB torrents from here.

Kick Ass is a strange movie.

I went into it cold, not knowing what to expect at all really. I mean, I’d read the blurb: ‘A High school student decides to become a Superhero, despite having no powers,’ and assumed it would be a light comedy. Which, in a way, it is.

Well, here’s my first issue with this film. It seems to be a strange mix, never quite knowing if it’s supposed to be a chucklefest or something darker. And yet, despite this confusion, it still manages to pack some clever stuff in.

So, let’s have a quick review of the background. Our hero (played by Dave Lizewski) is a nerd, though he introduces himself as ‘an ordinary kid’ just like any other. Yet obviously he isn’t quite like that, for indeed he does decide to venture into the world of superheroing, buying a costume online then, he goes forth and, after a short time ‘training’ has his first encounter.

It doesn’t go well, and indeed, this is where my image of a happy chucklefest left me. I won’t give the game away here, but, in typical superhero fashion, he comes out of the experience stronger than before, and is soon back out on the streets.

An act of daring is caught on the ubiquitous phone cameras of passers by, and, as seems to be the trend these days, he’s soon online and famous.

Parallel to this storyline is another, more sinister one, involving the bad guys. They are having a bit of a problem. Drugs of theirs are being stolen, and their men are generally being killed off, and they don’t’ know who’s doing it, choosing not to believe one victim’s story that it was ‘batman’.

Naturally the two soon get mixed up, and at this point, for pretty much the rest of the film, Kick Ass seems to be almost shunted aside and forgotten. Indeed, with a bit of rework I think we could probably write him out altogether. Strange.

The real star of this show is, in fact, a young girl, Mindy (Chloe Moretz). She’s the daughter of Big Daddy, played by a jovial, yet bad ass, Nicolas Cage (one of my fave actors as it happens). We’re first introduced to the pair when Big Daddy is shooting his daughter in the chest, to train her in the feel of a bullet-proof vest. The dialogue continues, with promise of ice cream if she gets shot a couple of more times.

Later on we see Mindy in action, brutally killing off several gang members alongside witty one liners, saving Kick Ass at the same time. Turns out Big Daddy (who, dressed in a Bat Man outfit, later out Batmans Batman), and his daughter of ruthlessly hunting down the crime gang that framed him years ago.

Mindy goes on to the final scene, along the way killing off a high percentage of the bad guy goons in a disturbingly efficient and light hearted fashion, including one awesome scene that’s a total piss take on Doom, or other first person shooters.

Overall Kick Ass is a weird one, and yet it features some nice one liners, and some really good spoof’s of films and games too.

Chinarens Rating: Confused, but overall enjoyable. Five stars.

Today’s review is by a guest poster, Anthony Lund. Read more of Anthony’s works at a reviewer from England, is the creator of Tales From The Back Side. Learn more at www.anthonylund.co.uk

As a Meat Loaf fan for over twenty five years a new album is always happily accepted and casting a critical eye is always hard when you’re listening to something by an artist you have followed and listened to for so long.

Being one of the fans who, three rows from the front of the Newcastle Arena, saw Meat declare that he would probably never sing again, a new album being produced within two years was something akin to expecting a miracle. When news of a new album began to circulate in 2009 and a release being slated for Spring 2010 I will admit to taking it with a pinch of salt.

Only when Meat entered the YouTube and twitter age with regular flip video logs of the ongoing progress of the album and its subsequent promotion did it become a reality.

So now, sitting with a copy of the CD ready to play, there is something of a trepidation about pressing the button. Can a 62 year old still cut it as a larger than life, bellowing rock god, or should he have hung up his red handkerchief after the ill-fated, so-so Bat out of Hell 3?

From the first minute of the album opener, Peace on Earth, all sense of fear that the man may have lost his vocal power fade away into obscurity and that’s before he sings a note. When the song kicks in, a fast paced Green Day-esque rocker (no surprise considering the album is produced by American Idiot’s Rob Cavello) it instantly sounds like something you’re familiar with, but for Meat it is a new direction to everything he’s ever done before.

The album is a concept album based on a short story about a dying soldier. Meat has woven a tapestry of scenes which flash before the soldier’s eyes, each song standing as a flash forward from the soldier’s life if he didn’t die.

Some are good, some are not so good, but all are delivered in the same bombastic rock, bellowing vocal performance that has always been a staple of Meat Loaf albums since Bat Out of Hell, but this is not Steinman epic lyrics, or indeed the old Meat Loaf formula that can be found in Anything For Love, I’d Lie For You and That’s The Truth, or Couldn’t Have Said It Better.

This is Meat Loaf for the new century, modern guitar riffs, unpredictable drum beats but always with the drama and power that defines Meat and stands him alone against all of his peers.

Meat Loaf albums without contribution from the incomparable Jim Steinman have occasionally fallen flat for less dedicated fans, and the Meat/Steinman combination has always been something special to those same fans. One difference with Hang Cool Teddy Bear is this time Meat has done an album on his own terms without oppression from managers and record companies…and it shows.

There are a number of standout songs on HCTB, all of which do so for their own reasons. Peace on Earth is a great punk-rock influenced song. Living on the Outside a driving song with plenty of riding cymbals and something of a roadhouse feel to it. The single Los Angeloser has its roots in blues, while rock returns in the Kira DeGuiardo duet If I can’t Have You (which also features actor Hugh Laurie on piano.

Love Is Not Real combines a couple of different rock styles to create something epic, while the Jack Black duet, Like a Rose, begins with an acoustic guitar then erupts into another driving anthem. Song of Madness is one of the least straight forward songs on the album, eerie, orchestral and containing Steve Vai’s signature screaming guitar; it certainly stands as a centrepiece of the album.

Following straight on, Did You Ever Love Somebody begins somewhat subdued, with Meat keeping his register unusually low through most of the song, and builds to be an above average ballad. Back into jazzed up blues rock with the opening of California Isn’t Big Enough, with a little of a sixties backing sound and one of most outrageous and best lines ever used in a Meat Loaf song with “I can barely fit my dick in my pants.” sang to a thumping beat somewhat akin to that of 90′s anthem “Word Up”.

Running Away From Me is probably the most peculiar song on the album with quite a few “la la la” lines and an echoed vocal, certainly not an expected Meat song but definitely not a bad song. Let’s Be In Love fits in the mould of a Diane Warren song with a sweeping melody and a big chorus. If It Rains wouldn’t be out of place on an Indie Rock band’s album, again with a big chorus and catchy overall tune. And with the closing Elvis in Vegas, a nostalgic memory trip, the album comes to a typical Meat Loaf finale.

All in all, this album is one that stands out from the back catalogue for its unquestionable finger on the pulse musical style that has been seen only in a couple of Bat 3 songs before in Meat’s discography. Although it can never quite reach the Steinman pinnacle of Anything For Love or Bat Out Of Hell, it probably comes in as top of the rest.

Meat has tried something different and has managed to pull it off. Rarely has there been a Meat Loaf album that I have listened to and instantly felt something for all of the songs, and it is hard to pick out a low point although Peace on Earth, California Isn’t Big Enough and Song of Madness are high points for me.

At the age of 62 all fans known that he cannot make albums like this forever, so they should savour it while they can, but as Hang Cool Teddy Bear displays this Meat isn’t past its sell by date yet.

Anthony Lund, a reviewer from England, is the creator of Tales From The Back Side. Learn more at www.anthonylund.co.uk

I’ve been playing one flash game a lot lately, so I thought I’d review it here, as I’m seriously behind on new reviews!

This one’s called Cyclomaniacs, and yes, it’s a side scroller bike game, but it has a little more than the usual offerings for this genre.

Firstly all the bikes are pedal bikes, and they race against each other on various terrains in various settings. These range from the fairly easy Dunes, a desert setting obviously, through to the hazardous lava strewn mountains and even low gravity moon courses! Each area has its own style, and each has five different courses that have to be unlocked by winning or performing tasks in other races.

When you choose a course, you choose a rider. Initially you only have one, fairly boring, box headed dude. However other riders soon become available, and they each have slightly different handling styles.

One thing you need to be able to do is perform stunts, so I tend to go for the Elvis dude, for example, as he can do flips fairly easily. Speed, acceleration and so forth can also be upgraded if you earn cash.

Other riders are more stable, perhaps a little faster or maybe just strange!

If you do enough stunts you’ll get a ‘boost’ which will propel you along at an increased speed, ironically allowing more stunts if you do it right, which means you can ‘boost’ again, and so forth. It becomes tricky at times, and some courses are more suited to boosting than others, but it’s a vital tactic, as the other computer players will all do this too.

Winning, or placing second/third will unlock other riders and courses, as well as give you cash and a few other bonuses. You also have to perform certain tasks within the races to unlock some features, and hence keeping an interest level through the game.

There’s a final challenge race on each level too, where you have to keep ahead of an opponent. Some of these are easy, others are more challenging, as you can choose your bike. The Laurel and Hardy one (if you know who they were), was particularly tooth gritting for me.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a bit of light relief, Cyclomaniacs will wile away a bit of time! Recommended!

You can play Cyclomaniacs at Tome City Games.

Chinarens Rating: Five stars.