Hardly A Channel

In a rare turn of events i have a chance to actually write about a film before it is on general release here in the UK! I was lucky enough to win two tickets a preview showing last night of  "Olympus Has Fallen" which is due out on general release tomorrow, Wednesday 17th. After having taken the US Box Office by storm (which is an apt saying considering were talking about a film where the white house is taken by terrorists) "Olympus Has Fallen" has arrived in the UK and i must say i really enjoyed it and feel it is well worth a watch. It follows Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) a disgraced FBI agent who becomes the only living person in the White House after it is taken by terrorists during a meeting between the leader of South Korea and the US President to discuss the threat North Korea poses. After a terrifyingly efficient and mercilessness take over of the White House in 13 minutes, involving a C130 Plane, Mounted Machine guns and Ground forces,the terrorists have the president and most of his high level staff prisoner in the presidential bunker.Banning has to proceed to make his way through the White House and be the "Eyes and Ears" of the acting president, speaker of the house played by the one and only Morgan Freeman. He is tasked with finding out who the terrorists are and trying to curtail their plans etc.  Now i can imagine that your thinking so what this sounds very much much straight out of the formulaic school of action film production. A rehash of films like Die Hard it is not, there is not the constant pithy one liners that makes Die Hard great and terrible. Don't get me wrong there is humor and some great delivery of dialogue in places in the film. The reasons for me that "Olympus Has Fallen" is a step above generic shoot and blow 'em ups are that i felt there was a greater depth to the characters or at least the main ones any way, peripheral roles tend to be under fleshed out and occasionally bordering on the unnecessary due to their detached nature, for example Banning's wife. The nature and manner of the terrorist attach also helps to give the film a level of believability and therefore allows for greater immersion in the film by the audience. By this i mean they don't roll up to the white house etc with tanks etc and take it that way, it is very clever and extremely well thought out combination of speed and precision, having people both with in the grounds and within the White House itself. This film plays on the fear that most of us have over Terrorism, but none quite so as the Americans  who since 9/11 have thought or worked against little else. The film exploits this with the taking of the most protected building and person in the world, this is coupled with the US's fear of plane based terrorism and is taken a step further by having the use of a weaponised plane and the untold damage it causes to property and life in the film. The film is added a certain edge by the plot piece of the meeting between the US and the South Korean leader over North Korea's posturing and saber rattling concerning war, with fiction reflecting reality it gives the film a spooky feel of what could be under different circumstances. All in all i enjoyed the film and felt it had a greater depth to it and was step up from some of the more vacuous blow everything up action films being turned out currently. I recommend giving it a watch when it is released on Wednesday 17th. Nosh, Signing Out. 

Now, i know we have been somewhat erratic of late (always) in our writing and posting of stuff but as the only person without full time commitments it has fallen to me to do most of the donkey work, and to be honest I've been lazy. However i have finally got around to writing something again so here you go, enjoy! I came across an interesting product/concept for those that love their touch screens, in particular tablets etc bigger than phone size, but who find typing on them to be an issue. the solution from Tactile a company in the US is that of one where the keyboard suddenly appears out of the flat surface of the touch screen itself! At first i thought it was a joke or some hideous kind of add on/overlay, however it is actually a nice looking (albeit slightly creepy) idea/product. At the touch of your finger the keys just suddenly appear before your eyes and finger tips. How can this be done you ask? Well it is done using a see through liquid layer applied to the surface of the touch screen which is pumped through channels to make the keys appear as if by magic. There are multiple settings for firmness of the keys from slightly squishy bubbles to much more solid "proper" button feel. i am unsure whether it is the case that it will always rise even when you don't need it or not but we shall see if it ever becomes main stream i guess. The company currently only has one partnership to implement this technology and it is with Touch Revolution, who make touch screens. Nosh, Signing Out. 

This last week I have been playing a lot of WWE ’13 on Xbox. Yep, laugh it up, but this is one of those wonderful surprises in gaming for me where my expectations are low yet a game proves to be immensely enjoyable. Initially bought as a ‘banter purchase,’ (a game I and my regular Live Party all buy on the cheap to play for a bit as a laugh), this has actually turned out to be a great single player experience. A heavy slab of nostalgia plays its part here, sending us back to times we’ve all spent playing previous iterations in our youth. This Nostalgia is aided by the ‘Attitude Era’ storyline, allowing the relieving of some of the major wrestling storylines from when we all actually knew who was who and it was still called WWF. Who doesn’t love a bit of Stone Cold Steve Austin? And that’s the bottom line! For the current day, there is Universe mode, which can be essentially whatever you want. The range of customisation available is brilliant and it is really possible to get the universe to work how you want it and see storylines and feuds develop as they would in real life shows. The controls are fiddly at first and there is a lot of button mashing, and online services are temperamental but when it all comes together and you nail your best mate with the People’s Elbow this game is as satisfying as they come. At a time when I find a lot of mainstream games have become too serious or gritty, this has been a shot in the arm of unbridled fun, greatly enhanced by how unexpected it was.  Jimmy

In the current trends of modern movies we have experienced a resurgence of first dance based films with films such as Step Up following on from such 80's classics as Flash dance, Footloose and Dirty Dancing. However now we have the rise of musical, in particular films showing vocal prowess. this seemed to first start with films such as High school musical, but i think we can fairly lay the blame/commendation at the foot of Glee and its phenomenal rise to almost cult status, bringing musicality to the masses and making singing and choirs cool.  Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with a visual audio expression of the human condition and journey we call life. So having made that introduction clear i can round the business to reviewing the actual film i went to see, which was Pitch Perfect. It wasn't a planned excursion to the cinema nor my choice of film, more of a mission of mercy on behalf of my sister so she didn't have to see the film alone after the arrangements with her friends fell through. however it didn't cost me anything as the ticket had already been paid for, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth i agreed to see the film. Pitch Perfect, whilst a film centered around competitive collegiate acapella choirs also explores the idea of breaking with tradition to strive for success.It also focuses on many of the usual themes found in any coming of age transitional film set within college, i.e. where we watch the protagonist reinvent themselves, changing from the child they were to the adult they want to be. All in all i enjoyed it, the singing was impressive but the story maybe a little too predictable. Easy to watch, easy to forget. Good for those times you want to watch something but don't feel like you want to have to think a lot, you can pop it on and watch with little effort and come out feeling relatively happy and positive.  Nosh, Signing Out.

800x600 Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} This film has been subject to mixed reviews and I can see why, it’s marketed as a Rom-Com which it is, but not in the straightforward mindless way that most go for the predictable mundane plots and stock gags. I think the best way to view this film is to not think of it as a rom-com, but more of an exploration of a relationship between an engaged couple. The plot begins where most predictable rom-com's end, with the lead couple getting engaged. That is really the last time it follows the usual conventions of a rom-com relationship, it takes the device of the inevitable “issue” that arises and is overcome before the protagonists marry, and applies a darker more realistic exploration of how a relationship works and changes. We meet Tom (JasonSegal) and Violet (Emily Blunt) just as they get engaged, we then follow them over the intervening 5 years as their relationship and circumstances change causing them to put off their wedding on numerous occasions. The film explores the theme of equality in relationships and the effect of making sacrifices on the dynamic of the couple. A successful kitchen manager of a good restaurant Tom decides to give up his job so that he and Violet can move across the country, so she can take up a post teaching psychology at a university. However as Violet begins to thrive in her new job and environment, Tom struggles to find a chef job and is forced to take a job in a sandwich shop.  As time goes by Tom begins to feel frustrated at himself for being unable to do a job he feels proud of and begins to blame violet for forcing this situation. As a fish out of water and an outsider Tom begins to spiral and becomes ever distant from Violet and the rest of society. The film looks at how the relationship changes as Violet becomes successful and Tom begins to resent her for making him lose his life as it was before. As Tom begins to let himself go and live on the fringe of society, Violet despairs and begins to seek comfort in the arms of her boss. The relationship reaches breaking point and they split, starting separate lives which leads to them both being successful but ultimately unhappy, especially in their relationships with new partners. Meeting again at the funeral of Violets grandmother they begin a casual relationship, before deciding that they have wasted too much time and that it is being together that means more to them than their careers which they can accommodate in each others lives. I realise that sounds cheesy and a little clichéd but that is more my summary than the way it works in the film. An underrated film that examines what it is like to be in a real life relationship not a Hollywood view of one. It doesn’t take its self too seriously and doesn’t go for the easy laughs and predictable plot of most rom-com’s. Uses dialogue to explore what it really means to be in a relationship and how life is never simple. Definitely not your standard Romantic comedy but that’s a good thing, I recommend watching it if you’re a fan of other off beat rom-com’s like Elizabethtown. Nosh, Signing Out. 

800x600 Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} I watched this after it landed on the hall floor from Lovefilm, didn’t really know what to expect. So with some trepidation and a couple of hours to kill having already watched all the TV series I watch (Perks/Curse of being unemployed), I sat down to watch this. What did I find you ask? Well, what I first mistook to be just a different angle on the Rom-com genre, substituting pensioners in the place of the usual preppy 20/30 something’s. Turned out to be an irreverent comedy following a group of British pensioners who decide to see out their golden years in India at the newly renovated Marigold Hotel, they go seeking opulence, sunshine and elephants. However what they find after arriving is more Kevin McCloud and Grand Designs than the Ritz, not as in beautiful open plan living spaces with snazzy appliances, in what would be otherwise unaffordable postcodes. Nope the kind where they have no idea what they are doing and by the projected finished date have nothing but a shell and no money. The Marigold Hotel fits clearly in to this category as what they are confronted with is dusty shell filled with junk and rooms with a bed and door if they’re lucky! The set backs experienced help to bring his group of aging strangers together but I know how clichéd you say but it is the experience of being changed by the culture and each other that makes this film worth watching. The stellar cast give superb performances which are often understated, allowing them to convey real emotion and sensitivity to problems and issues ranging from death of a spouse, through to homosexuality and racism. A film worth watching with a great cast, if nothing else to understand how poorly I have probably described it. A film that tries to show that the past isn’t what defines the future and that when you let go of it, life and love can be found at any age. Nosh, Signing Out.

800x600 Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} For as long as there have been video games and consoles there has been a driving force in  new games to be increasingly more realistic, both in the quality of the worlds the characters inhabit but also the characters themselves. With each successive generation of consoles developers have been given greater and greater resources to create the nirvana of the real world perfectly represented in a game. This can be seen to be reaching dizzying new heights in photorealism in such games as Crysis 3 for spectacular visual surroundings and physics, or LA Noire for facial movement realism to the point where you can tell when a character you’re interacting with is lying to you. This realism of facial expression has been taken to a new level surpassing even that of LA Noire, this has been done by using in depth facial motion capture, as can be seen in the video below.      Not only do we as gamers crave realism in what we can see, how we look, how we interact with the world but we seek to be in more realistic situations. This has been answered in games such as the SOCOM series giving us a chance to be a navy seal, SplinterCell series allowing us to be spies; choosing our own personal balance between stealth and aggression. This has been facilitated by the inclusion of experts from those areas in the development and plot creation, to try to capture the nuances of what it is like to be in those situations and how people react when presented with choices and problems. Splinter Cell: Blacklist However hard gamers and developers have sought the Holy Grail, that gaming can be become indistinguishable to real life places and situations. It has lead people to becoming uncomfortable, this uneasiness when viewing ever more realistic people and places in games is known as the Uncanny Valley principle. The Uncanny Valley is a hypothesis put forward by Massahiro Mori in 1970 about robotics and gaming, it suggests that when we view human replicas who look and act almost human but not quite it causes revulsion. The closer the replica to human the greater the discomfort, until the replica becomes indistinguishable from a human, then the reaction is positive again. Therefore we may reach a point where realism gets too real in games and just is more off putting than helpful. This fear and revulsion of robots approaching human facsimiles has already occurred, this is a shame as it hampers development as no one wants to buy a robot that makes everybody uncomfortable. Mori Uncanny Valley graph In conclusion we may end up suffering as victims of our own success in our search for realism, as we are now probably reaching the next plateau of realism in terms of our game characters without being repulsed by them. However this may not be a bad thing in terms of robots, as who actually wants robots that are indistinguishable from humans, we are just bound to end up with an I,Robot/Skynet conclusion being reached by the robots over our treatment of each other and the earth! So don’t say I didn’t warn you!    Sources:  http://killscreendaily.com/articles/visual-games-photorealism-crisis/ http://www.gamestudies.org/0401/galloway/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley   http://kotaku.com/5803111/think-la-noire-has-impressive-facial-animations-check-this-out     http://news.discovery.com/tech/realistic-robot-120716.html Nosh, Signing Out.

Plain Ok, so I’m not a writing person. Usually it takes about 8 hours before a deadline until I finally pull my finger out and create something. With this in mind, I am hoping my contributions to Hardly a Review will be of a higher quality than the streaming river of shit that must be flowing from Nosh’s arse after that Chinese food we consumed about two hours ago. So with a fist full of dictionary, and another fist full of gin, I started to scour the web for a show worthy of my critique. I came across just the show, a low budget sci-fi series produced and set in New Zealand. Perfect, I thought, I should be able to get a few jokes out of that. The Almighty Johnsons has a fairly standard sci-fi concept, the main character, Axl, comes of age only to find that he is in fact the Viking god Odin, reincarnated in human form... how convenient. In fact his entire family are reincarnated gods who have eked out an existence in various guises ever since they fled Scandinavia to escape Christian persecution, well let’s face it who hasn’t fled Christian persecution at one time or another? That’s all very well, if not a bit cheese, I hear you say... so what’s the catch? Well since the gods survive by reincarnating themselves as human beings, their powers have diminished over time. Meaning the all the god of winter can do is chill your drink and all the god of poetry can do is continually chat women into his bed... yeah, that’s pretty much all these two characters do. However, to restore their powers the newly reborn Odin, as king of the gods, must complete a quest. He must find the reincarnation of Odin’s wife Frigg (yeah, I know) and... well... basically shag her. This sets out the premise for the show, which is essentially one big sex mission in order to find Frigg so they can all live merrily ever after with newly regrown beards and ever flowing tankards of ale. It seems fairly simple, and yes that’s because it is, and that’s where the show falls down, no overarching plot, no drama or suspense, no deep character development and an extremely predictable story. I felt that I already knew all there was to know about the characters by the end of the second episode, and as the story went on I felt more and more certain in that assumption. It’s got all your favourite bargain bin characters, such as “the proud one” who will stick to his principals even when it lands him in a hole full of shit; “the insecure one” who is often troubled by his powers and questions his self worth till it makes you puke in your popcorn, and of course there’s the “92 year old stoner hippy... … ...one”. A regular episode usually centers around the main characters hunt to find Frigg. Pulling up a lead, which although it could technically be anyone, is usually always a fairly attractive white chick of a similar age to the main character. Then there’s a race between the protagonists and the antagonists to one-up each other before the final gripping conclusion that it actually isn’t Frigg, and the search begins afresh. I can honestly say that I haven’t seen a plot so repetitive since I last watched Pokémon. I had money on it being his plain looking flat mate all along, but she actually ends up being one of the very few women he get’s past second base with, so I lost my money. You may think that despite it’s flaws I didn’t like the show. You’d be wrong there, or else I wouldn’t have watched all 10 episodes of the series and bother to write and half coherent review of the bloody thing. Nope, despite all it’s flaws, there was something that kept me coming back... oh yeah, the boobs... and even there were in fairly short supply. If I’m honest, my problem with the show isn’t that there’s necessary anything wrong with it, it’s just that everything it tries to be has already been done, and done a lot better. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the whole god thing... but couldn’t they have picked a more exciting religion? I mean I for the longest time I was trying to work out if

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