Silent Hill: The DVD Experience

This day is one that I have been waiting for since I left Silent Hill in the theatres way back in April. The movie amazed me in ways I thought weren't even possible, but low and behold, here I am. Now, the film is out on DVD, and much to the dismay of me, and other fanatics, it is utterly lacking the zest I would have expected.

Now, the movie is there, and that's the main goal for getting this thing. Of course, it is there in its entirety as well--nothing was cut, as some studios do when they release DVDs, and try to get you not to notice. Also, it's crisp and clear, as would be expected. So that is the best part of the DVD.

As far as special features go, this DVD has a six-part making-of documentary that spans the conception of the film, the casting, the building of the sets, the stunts in the film, the creature design, and the creature movements. I only watched the first two, and the last two, but they offered some much needed insight into the film, which made it look that much better to me.

Aside from that, the DVD is almost completely lacking everything else. It has about twenty minutes of trailers and previews before you even get to the menu, and when you do, you get some flashy imagery which is pretty cool. That's about it, ladies and gentlemen.

Now, for the aesthetic part--The case. The DVD underwent some last minute cover art changes which surprised me--the original design was pretty cool. In the end, they went with the standard poster that was released for the film. The old cover art can be seen here, and the new one, here.

Turns out that we Canadians got a different case. That's kind of a jip, but I guess I will survive. All in all, good buy to hold you off until they rerelease it with more special features, and whatnot. Enjoy.

H.

Dead Rising

I am not going to lie, I haven't actually finished Capcom's latest foray into the zombie genre, Dead Rising, but I've played a good chunk of it, and I've got some things that are worth pointing out. The game is definitely one of the more original titles to hit the market in a while, taking open-ended gameplay to a much different level than it has been to before.

For instance, in games like Grand Theft Auto, the story progresses when you see fit. In Dead Rising, certain things happen at certain times, and if you miss it, then you miss out some crucial plot points. I haven't missed any yet myself, but the stuff I do know about the plot would have made it much more confusing if I was not privy to the information. So you can't exactly go around, killing zombies the whole time, and expect to get a full knowledge of the backstory.

In the ranks of graphics, this game is definitely crisp. And the utter lack of slow down, even with three-hundred plus zombies on the screen at once, is just astonishing. The only time you really see lag is when you manage to take out more than six zombies at once with a single attack, which isn't very often. The character models are also quite snazzy, and move pretty fluently. However, for a next gen game, it seems like they didn't really unlock the potential of the 360.

The sound in this game is definitely one of the high points. The effects are amazing. The sounds of the weapons hitting their targets, or even missing and hitting a wall, are amazing. The blood sounds, well, fluid, and, just, everything sounds like it should sound. The music leaves a little to be desired, though. And while we're on the auditory subject, let me just say that the voice acting is spot on in this one. Perfect emotion, farce, and insanity from every character.

The gameplay is smooth as shit, only really faulting when you are surrounded by the undead, and need to make a quick exit, only to have the jump command go through a little too late. However, that's easily lived with. The weapons are also quite good in the game, however, some of the cooler ones tend to break rather easy, so spare them until you really have to, or really want to, use them.

Another problem that I have with the game is that if you don't have an HDTV, then you are going to have a lot of fucking trouble reading the tiny text on the screen to find out what you should be doing next. Lucky they put that Nav marker there, though, so you at least know what direction to go in.

When I finish the game, you'll get something a little more concrete in the way of a review, but as of now, Dead Rising is getting a tentative 9.0/10.0.

H.

Firewall.

Once again Harrison Ford has jumped onto the screen, displaying the same range of emotions and intensity that have plagued his last handful of movies that I actually cared to watch. Now, in certain situations, the rage and intensity is very welcome, however, in Firewall, he takes it to an extreme that reminded me a lot of Air Force One. Not to mention the fact that a lot of it is misplaced.

The general plot of the movie follows a man who works for a bank. He is responsible for designing the software that keeps all the happy little rich people's money safe. It's nice to see them breaking the stereotype that older people know shit about computers. That, or Harrison Ford, and the powers that be, just can't fathom that the actor is reaching the end of his career. Enter a shady character by the name of Cox, played by Paul Bettany (A Knight's Tale, The Da Vinci Code), who Jack (Ford) thinks is an investor looking to employ him and his friend, Harry (Played by Robert Forster, Jackie Brown) as security advisors, or something like that.

However, Cox isn't who he makes himself out to be, and kidnaps Jack's wife and kids. His plan is to get Jack to help him rob the bank that Jack works for of one hundred million dollars. If he doesn't, of course, Cox is going to kill his family. As the story progresses, an either very intelligent, or totally bogus contraption is made, consisting of an iPod, and a scanner from a fax machine, that will steal the account numbers of the accounts Cox would like to steal from.

Jack goes through with the theft, and everything seems to be cleaning up nicely, however, Cox has other plans. Tricking Jack's wife into calling, and leaving a message on Harry's voicemail, confessing her love for him, and telling him how she is leaving Jack, he then kills Harry, with Jack's own gun, making it seem like Jack did it in a fit of jealousy.

Jack decides to strike back, and steals the money back from Cox, and demands a fair trade. So, of course, Cox agrees, and then immediately sneaks his way out, and backs Jack into a metaphorical corner. Luckily, the dog that the robbers took with them for some reason has a GPS system in his collar, and Jack tracks them down. After some lackluster action, Ford and Bettany engage in a battle that looks like it was pulled right from Air Force One, complete with Ford's trademark tackle--which looks more like him collapsing on his enemies from a stroke.

The film ends with no explanation about what happens to the money, and the police arriving quite late, as is the standard. Maybe they heard that Ford was already on the case, and thought he could handle it. Who knows, I sure don't.

Overall, the acting was decent, mainly because Bettany added his touch to the film, which was much better than Ford's traditional mild-mannered-turned-hard-ass characters in this situation. Also be sure to look for the retarded brother from Rat Race, as he makes an appearance as a henchman.

In final, sure, I would recommend this flick if you're looking for something mindless to watch on a Sunday afternoon, like me. But overall, this should be some kind of indication that if you want to see Harrison Ford in a movie, stick with Star Wars, or Indiana Jones.

But he was still the best damn president the United States ever had.

H.

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H.